Calling Collect from Homeworld
by Jokie155
Summary: A new Homeworld Gem lands on Earth, but she is unlike anything the Crystal Gems have faced before. Armed with terrifying new powers, unknown to even Peridot, and with secret missions that she intends to carry out, Steven and all his friends, both Gem and human, are matched against an agent of White Diamond herself, and the herald for far worse things to come... (Now a full AU)
1. Cold Star Coal

Across the northern sky raced what at first appeared to be a meteorite. While relatively small in size, it hurtled towards the open fields of Thorway in a great plume of fire. And yet, the object itself was jet black, not even slightly red from the fierce entry velocity.

It landed not far from an isolated house in the midst of grassy fields, which immediately drew the attention of the sole resident who came blustering out in his pyjamas.

"Hva i verden er dette!? Hva i verden er dette!?"

He stumbled through the chilling fields, frosty grass biting at his ankles, all the while racing towards where he heard the meteorite land.

He also very nearly fell into the crater upon reaching the rim. To his shock, there was no fire around the landing zone. Just a frightful black glow that lit up the surrounding field in a dull light that he could barely make out.

"Hva er dette…?"

A sudden whoosh from the black spherical object nearly made him fall over in fright, arms flailing while his pyjama leggings slapped about his stumbling feet. When he finally regained his balance, his jaw dropped altogether.

From the object emerged a long grey arm. It was at least twice his height in length from wrist to elbow, and that again from elbow to shoulder as more of the being within emerged. Oddly enough, there was a black pyramid on that very shoulder.

The head was next, enormous in size, and apparently shaped into an identical black pyramid. He soon came to realize that the shape was actually a hat of some sort, for the front facing corner was cut off to reveal a face underneath it. The eyes were hauntingly dead, two black ellipses in stark white orbs that looked as if they had been stretched upward. When they lashed towards him, he very nearly went that shade of white in terror.

Soon the other shoulder came out, the being using both arms to hoist herself free of the object. Two sets of arched plates that had been previously folded down on her shoulders flared up to make her already cold appearance look menacing. Her shirt had four black bands crossed over a darker shade of grey material, all converging on the shape of a white diamond. Below what he could only assume was a midriff that exposed her lack of a navel was a skirt that bore similar plates to those on her shoulders, shimmering black against the only light grey to be seen on her form.

When she finally stepped out altogether, he began to calm down at last, if only out of confusion at the fact that she appeared to be wearing black tights under the skirt. Her boots were pointed at the top, right below each knee.

His gaze eventually turned upward again to see the being staring right down at him. She was incredibly tall.

"En gigantisk grå kvinne?"

He finally did fall to the ground when the giant being dropped to her knees, and then sat down on her ankles before leaning down to look at him face to face. Up close, he could see that her eyes were almost as tall as he was, and while her featureless nose was snubby, it looked as if it could cause him a lot of pain just from a firm nudge.

There was barely time to get up again before the being spoke in a distinctively feminine voice.

"Peridot."

The man blinked. "Peridot?"

The being noticed his confusion, rolled her eyes at it, then brought her hands forward to gesture while spelling it out.

"Peh. Ree. Dot."

He blinked again, mouth still agape from continued shock.

After another eyeroll, the being put her hands on her knees.

"Warp. Pad."

Still nothing.

"Warp, pad. Beam, light."

The man closed his mouth to swallow. Those words were a bit more familiar.

"Stråle av lys? Beam of light?"

The being nodded at last, nearly smothering him with her enormous pyramid of hair every time it bobbed down over him.

"Direction?"

The man pointed off behind him in the vague direction that he had seen what he assumed was the beam of light, somewhere in the midst of fields of giant strawberries and oversized weapons.

He didn't get any further acknowledgement from the being, who rose to her feet in a single movement and began striding over, the ground shaking slightly with every step. He was left staring at four deep dents in the field where her knees and feet had planted in.

"Mareritt. Bare et mareritt…"

With one last look at the landing zone, he mumbled to himself and began trudging back home, getting one last look at the giant grey woman while she strode off into the distance, a silhouette of towering terror against the night sky.

* * *

It was an early morning for Steven, having made the walk up from the temple to the Beach City boardwalk before dawn. He had no particular reason for being out there so early, the mood had just struck him as such.

Almost as if he had been given the impulse…

His look of suspicion over what amounted to basically nothing was interrupted by the sight of Mayor Dewey on the swift approach. A blue-grey jumper and grey sweatpants were an unusual change from the business suit and slacks he seemed to have several copies of, but also very fitting as he was clearly on a morning jog of his own.

"Mooorning Universe."

"Morning Mayor Dewey. I didn't know you did morning jogs."

By then, Mayor Dewey had come to a stop near one of the benches, which he promptly plonked down in with an exasperated sigh.

"I decided it's about time to encourage a healthier lifestyle for the town. And that means I have to lead the charge. Starting with exercise!"

Steven nodded in his usual way, a pleasant smile and a half-knowing look in his eyes. "That's great! I've always thought about being a workout instructor again."

Mayor Dewey took one mortified look at him, cleared his throat and straightened out his jacket, then hastily returned to his jog.

"Good luck with that then Universe! I uh, have to keep the pace up!"

He was down past the donut cafe corner by the next minute.

Steven shrugged. "He's really giving it his all."

He continued on his trip down the boardwalk, sandals clapping with every step, and remembering to step over the board that always squeaked and had often interrupted the niceness of the moment.

Somewhere in front of the arcade strip, he stopped to approach the railing and lean on it while looking out to the rising sun on his left. The warm red glow brought with it a happy feeling that made him smile even more.

As the colours began to shift through to orange, he briefly glanced away to avoid straining his eyes. That put him right in position to see Lapis Lazuli slowly gliding down to the boardwalk near him, landing on her feet with barely a sound.

"Hey Steven."

Steven was of course happy as ever for the company. "Hey Lapis. Come to watch the sunrise, or did you wanna talk?"

She approached the railing beside him, resting both arms on it in front of her and leaning out to look over the morning ocean roll. "I guess I could watch the sunrise for a while if you want me to."

"Lapis, I didn't mean it like that. I just didn't want to assume you only came to ask me something."

Lapis blinked in a spot of confusion at that, but chose to let it slide in silence. "I guess now that you mention it, this would be a good time to talk huh?"

With a growing grin, Steven ran his hand through his hair as if to slick it back, and mimed a pen and paper. "I'm all ears Lapis. Ask me anything."

"Well, I think… I mean, I guess…" She clenched her hands together with a huff of mild frustration, which made Steven a little concerned. "I _think_ I've been having dreams lately."

"Oh."

He said that as if it explained everything to him. It only opened up far more questions. The way she said it sounded as if she was uncertain of what to think, not disturbed or pleased. It could have been about what happened in the dream, that she was dreaming at all, or if he was even the right person to discuss it with.

"Peridot was in them a lot."

Just for a moment, he blushed, more on instinct than any particular thought. "What happened in them? Were you just imagining meepmorp ideas with her, or was it something else?"

Lapis sighed again, twisting an arm back up to rest her chin onto her palm. "She had her limb enhancers, most of the time. But it wasn't on the Gem ship or Homeworld, so I know they're not memories. I don't even really remember what was being said, it's all muffled when I think about it. I remember a lot of pointing at text and diagrams I don't have a clue where to begin on, and when she took the limb enhancers off it was to use some big machine. None of it makes sense."

"That kinda happens with dreams a lot. Either you don't remember them well, or they don't make sense and it becomes a ramble of explaining how things didn't make sense. I wouldn't worry about it."

"That's the thing Steven. I'm not worried about missing something. I just feel…" Her fingers curled in under her chin a little, a frown starting to form. "Frustrated. It's like I've missed something important. But how can it be important when it's just a dream?"

Steven reached out to her arm, resting his hand there softly and putting on his best supportive face. "Maybe tonight I can try using astral projection, see if I can make sense of it. I've gotten practise with helping Kiki out since I used it to find Malachite."

Lapis merely sighed and leaned back off the railing, bowing her head again before lifting it back up to look at him. "I guess it's worth trying. Thanks Steven."

He made a joking double finger gun in response. "Anytime Lapis."

When she didn't immediately fly off as expected, he quickly glanced around the boardwalk in search of something they could do. While she hadn't exactly been the social type, the fact that she had come over to Beach City of her own accord struck him as a good opportunity to at least try and make her a little more comfortable with the other residents.

The donut shop was what eventually held his attention as an ideal starting place, definitely quiet enough for them to talk more while in the company of others, or at least Sadie. "Hey, Lapis, you wanna come with me to the donut shop? You don't have to eat anything, it's just a nice place to talk."

Lapis went through a series of more subtle expressions, looking over at the place in question for most of them. She settled for looking away while holding her arm in uncertainty. "I don't know. I'll just feel awkward, and not say much, and kinda ruin the whole point of it."

"Well if you're not sure, that's okay. I can come by the barn after breakfast. Sadie mentioned something about a new bagel line, and I figured I'd try that first. See you after then?"

"Okay…"

With another reassuring smile, Steven turned and headed off towards the donut shop, leaving Lapis to watch him depart.

Her expression grew lower. She also turned with the intent of leaving, getting so far as bringing out her wings before pausing, and looking back over her shoulder at the donut shop.

At the store itself, Sadie was barely in the door herself when Steven arrived. Given how often that it occurred however, she was barely even fazed.

"Really excited for those bagels huh?"

Steven beamed a smile, but gave a bit of a shrug after. "Actually, I just felt taking like a walk and watching the sunrise. And I could help out first if you'd like."

"Aw, that's real nice of you to offer, but I think I'll try handling it alone today. Lars might have had slack days, but knowing he's not going to be around for a while kinda changes things."

Not for the first time, Steven nodded in a knowing way, his shoulders slouching just a little. "Yeah, I suppose. No telling when I might be gone for a while too, so I'm not much of a replacement am I?"

Sadie placed her hand on his shoulder briefly with a continued smile. "It's the thought that counts, really." She hummed on her way around the counter to unlock the display cases. "Maybe when I've had time to think, we can work out something part-time for you. So many hours a week for example, so you're not really missing shifts while out on gem missions. Have to check with your dad first of course."

"Great! I'll ask him later today, see what he thinks."

"Alright, if you're that excited, I'll go talk with Greg after I close up. Why don't you have a seat in the meantime, I'll get that breakfast bagel ready."

While she went off to the staffroom, Steven wandered back over to the sole table inside, taking up the seat facing towards the counter.

"I wonder if phone signals work through Lion's mane. Or on Homeworld."

He was musing to himself of course, as there was no-one else in the customer room itself.

At least until the door chime signalled the arrival of a new customer.

Sadie's voice rang out from the doorway of the staffroom. "I'll be with you in just a moment!"

Steven had turned around by then, and had the pleasant surprise of seeing Lapis there after all.

"You came!"

She dragged her fingers through her hair in a spot of nervousness. "I thought about a while. And-" Her hand fell from her hair in accompaniment with a shift of her gaze. " I'm willing to give 'this' a go. If you really think it'll work out."

"Don't worry, Sadie's one of the nicest people in Beach City. And if things still get awkward, I'll just explain or say something funny. No pressure."

"No pressure, got it."

Lapis slowly moved over to the seat opposite Steven and sat down, brushing her skirt forward as she did so. Looking back at his cheerful-if-blank face in silence was already beginning to feel awkward, but not nearly as much as she had expected.

"She'll be back out here any moment, don't worry."

"I'm not worried."

"I know. What I don't know is alternate ways to provide comfort, ah?"

The finger guns came back out at that.

Lapis took her turn for a blank stare.

"Alrighty Steven, it's well on the way." Sadie was barely out of the staffroom before stopping mid step in surprise at seeing a Gem in the shop that wasn't Amethyst, Pearl or Garnet. Moreso that it was one of the more elusive Gems that she had encountered only once before, and had yet to even speak with.

When she did find words to use, she did so with a nervous wave of her own. "Oh hi there. Haven't seen you around since the carwash. What brings you to the Big Donut?"

After an assuring nod from Steven, Lapis twisted in her seat to look at Sadie properly. There was an odd comfort in knowing she wasn't the only one feeling uncertain about meeting someone new, in the proper sense anyway. "I needed to talk with Steven."

Her gaze dipped a little. It was impossible to not feel Steven himself was ready to intervene after her shutdown tone. But in the face of uncertainty, she had been strong and brave before, so she picked things back up herself. "We discussed things, and he wanted me to come here. So…" She slid her gaze back to Steven's encouraging motions. "So I could talk. With humans I guess. Like you?"

Sadie scratched the back of her head. "Well, I'm definitely human, so you're on the right track huh? I'm Sadie by the way."

"Lapis Lazuli. Lapis is fine. Bob I'm not sure about."

"Lapis it is then. I suppose we can talk once Steven's bagel is ready, unless you've got Gem business to get to soon?"

There was a head shake from the Gem.

"Great, then I'll be back in a few minutes. Won't be long Steven."

Steven smiled back at her, doing his best to keep the mood high. "Thanks Sadie."

As soon as she was gone, Lapis twisted back around and cupped her hands either side of her face. "What am I doing Steven? Why am I doing this? I don't have to interact with humans that often anyway."

"Just relax. Remember, you don't _have_ to do this, it'll just mean you can begin to socialize with Beach City residents better when you come to visit. Even if it's just a hello and a smile. The last blue Gem most of them saw was Aquamarine after all, so showing them how nice you are would really help ease things again."

Lapis sighed, folding her arms around to clutch at the other, and slumped back into the seat. "You're right. It'd be better than watching videotapes again and again, never actually trying to understand actual human relations. I won't know what to expect for the first time in a while, but that's not a bad thing is it?"

"Of course it isn't! Not everyone will become friends with you immediately, but part of life on Earth is overcoming challenges, however they appear. And given enough time, Beach City will be a place where pretty much everyone knows your name."

After a few moments, Lapis narrowed her gaze at him. "That sounds familiar. Like a catchphrase."

Steven gave one of his innocent shrugs just before Sadie made her reappearance. "Maybe we've both heard it before somewhere, it just sounded like the right thing to say."

Lapis smiled a little at that, her eyes starting to follow the breakfast bagel that was placed in front of Steven. "Well, I think I'm starting to agree."

"Here you go Steven. One breakfast bagel meal. Anything else I can get ya?"

"I'm good. Thanks Sadie."

"Anytime. So, Lapis…"

Sadie turned to see Lapis slipping from her seat. What would have been an awkward moment of disappointment instead became slight confusion as the Gem wandered around the counter to eventually sit up on it towards the left wall of the store, looking back over her shoulder at Sadie.

"It's a little quieter here, and I've noticed you stand behind the counter a lot anyway. I hope you don't mind."

"Well…" Sadie reached around the back of her head again, looking back to Steven briefly for an answer on how to proceed.

He gave an encouraging nod after taking the first bite of the bagel.

Good enough for her. "Sure, good a place as any to chat."

Lapis gave a light swing of her legs while waiting for Sadie to move around, spending most of that time glancing over the fridges in front of her.

"So, how's the business? Steven talks about this place a lot, how much he likes coming here."

Steven gave a thumbs up to Sadie, mouth full of seasoned bagel and lean fried egg.

She chuckled with a hint of nervousness. "Oh, well actually I'm not so sure now. I was just telling Steven how I have to take things carefully for a while, with Lars gone from Earth for who knows how long. I guess you and the other Gems are the only ones who can help him now, so I'm kinda grateful you're here."

Lapis tilted her head slightly. "Why though? I can't fly to Homeworld again without being noticed, let alone bring him back myself. And I'm no good with Gem technology, so I can't help with building a ship." Her head tilted down in front of her again with a mild look of regret. "I'm really not the Gem you should be grateful to have around."

"Well, even if you can't help directly…" At that, Sadie moved a little closer, putting her hand out to Lapis' arm. "Just taking the time to ask how I'm doing means a lot. It was hard explaining everything to his parents, and I've been worried about what I'll do without him. But sometimes all you need is a kind word to be helpful, and make someone else's day better."

"You've got Steven for that though. He's always full of hope and nice things to say."

"And that's good. But, it means more coming from someone I barely even know in a way. If that makes sense?"

Again, Lapis hummed in thought, staring ahead while she did so. It took her a while, but she did eventually catch onto what Sadie was implying.

"Because we don't know each other, there's no real expectations, just impressions." She turned her head back with a half cocked smile. "Maybe there is more I can do to help around town, while Peridot works on the ship. Things that don't involve grabbing cars with water, or draining the ocean away."

"Yeah, not doing those things would be a good start. Just don't feel like you absolutely have to help out. No-one's pressuring you into it at all. Let it be more natural."

Lapis snickered at first, but soon settled into a smile. "Steven's right, you are the nicest person in Beach City. I can see why he comes here all the time."

"Aw, thanks. And see? You're already doing great with those kind words."

Before blushing ever so slightly, Lapis turned her head back towards the fridges yet again. "Yeah, that wasn't so hard."

Steven made his way up to the counter, placing down some notes and a few coins next to the register, accounting to how much the new bagel poster at the front of the store had displayed. "Breakfast bagel was great. I'm sure it'll be a hit when more people get to try it."

"Think you could sign a review while you're at it?" Sadie waved away the notepad and pen he was drawing from his pocket. "I'm joking, have a good day Steven!" She glanced over as Lapis slid herself off the counter to walk back around. "And you too Lapis."

With another smile, Lapis brushed past to where Steven was waiting. "Thanks Sadie."

And with that, they left.

It wasn't until they were well past the backlot of the Big Donut that Steven spoke up, while simultaneously giving Lapis a soft nudge to her arm. "See? You were great! You asked how she was, sympathised with her problems, lightened things with some topically relevant humour. And you're feeling better for it right?"

She nodded with that small smile of hers. "Yeah, I am."

"And once you've done it enough times, it'll come naturally. You don't have to go around town saying hello to everyone, just whenever you happen to meet someone on the way will make a difference."

Not long after, they arrived at the car wash. Greg was sorting through a few boxes outside the back of the van when he noticed the approaching pair, immediately picking up with a smile.

"Hey hey, look who's here!" He caught Steven's embrace with a small chuckle, ruffling his hair before looking up to Lapis.

"Hey Greg. How's the wash doing?"

"Great actually, thanks for asking. I really think the new sign is doing wonders for promoting the business. I'm even getting some tourist customers now."

By then, Steven had wandered over to one of the boxes, idly looking through an assortment of electronics. "Wow, there's so much old stuff here!"

"Oh, Yellowtail was cleaning out his storage unit and offered some boxes for free. I think antique electronics was a hobby of his at one point. Not sure if any of those things still works, but you're welcome to it."

Lapis wandered over to the box as well, looking over it for a few moments before bending over and pulling out one of the larger objects.

Steven quickly recognized it as a radio. "Ooh, this is what humans used for receiving audio meant for lots of people years ago." He carefully turned it in his hands after Lapis passed it over for examination. "Wow, it doesn't even have FM! This really is old!"

Lapis blinked at him with a continued blank look. "FM?"

"Frequency modulation, Lapis." Greg joined the gathering around the radio at that, picking up the radio as it was handed to him in turn. "That came after amplitude modulation, AM radio. I guess in a way, you can think of it as the difference between infrared and ultraviolet light, though that's not really scientifically accurate. Just an analogy."

"Oh, I see." Despite finding little understanding in said analogy, she was nevertheless making the effort to pretend she did. Thus, when the radio was handed back to her again, she did her best to act as if she could make sense of it. "So how does it work? It looks more complicated than the wailing stone Steven showed me, but nowhere near as advanced as Gem tech. Or Peridot's pad."

Greg shuddered at that memory before reaching over to one of the control knobs. "Well, basically you turn that to adjust frequency. I'm not sure if there are any AM broadcasts in the area, but who knows what the range is like. The other is for volume." He turned his head slightly to look for a switch. "Of course, it might not have power, could even be too old to take any batteries I have on hand."

After a glance of his own, Steven reached towards the bottom of the radio and pressed down, popping out a small compartment that was devoid of suitable batteries.

"Huh, well whaddya know. We might have this thing up and running for you in no time Lapis."

A little disparaged by the thought of actually keeping the radio, Lapis kept hold of it anyway, keeping it steady while Steven loaded the batteries in, and holding out for Greg to switch on.

The first sound to come out was a loud squeal that quickly degraded into static.

"Alright, it turns on! Try adjusting the frequency until you hear something, then fine tune it to get a clear signal."

"Okay."

All three went quiet as Lapis began doing just that. The squealing came and went abruptly at certain points, but the static remained.

She was drawing near to the end of the spectrum when Greg sighed, giving a shrug. "Oh well, mustn't be any broadcasters in the area after all. Sorry Lapis."

"It's okay. Maybe Peridot can do something with it. Or I can just hang it up on a wall."

"Yeah, I guess after what she did with that lawnmower, there's not a whole lot she can't do with Earth technology."

Steven's phone buzzed at that moment. He glanced at the others while pulling it out. "It's Connie, mind if I take this?"

Lapis merely shrugged, while Greg did the same. "Sure."

The phone was up against his head right after. "Hey Connie, what's up?"

" _Well, I'm not sure yet. I was doing some of my daily news browsing, and I came across this article from Thorway. Steven…_ "

There was a pause, in which he heard Connie taking a deep breath.

" _I think there's another Homeworld Gem here on Earth. And from the sound of it, she's looking for Peridot._ "

His expression went right to concern as he looked to Lapis in particular.

"Okay, come over as soon as you can. Lapis is here, she'll go get Peridot now. I think the Gems will want to see this article for themselves."

" _Agreed. See you in a while Steven, stay safe._ "

As soon as the call ended, he lowered it down, staring into the screen for a long moment.

Both Lapis and Greg were growing quite concerned by then, the latter reaching out to his shoulder.

"Steven? What's this about an article?"

Gaze remaining on Lapis, Steven finally turned it back to his father. "Connie thinks there might be a Homeworld Gem out to get Peridot." He looked back to Lapis again, who was already growing worried. "Just get her to warp right to the temple, or fly her back here if you have to. Okay?"

"Don't worry Steven, I got this."

And she was off in a soft splash of her wings, flying across Beach City and out of sight before the minute was up, radio in hand.

That left Greg alone with Steven, lowering down to one knee so he could look at him properly. "Steven, promise me you won't do something risky again. We only just got you back."

Steven kept up the confident look for both their sakes, nodding in answer.

"The Diamonds don't know I escaped Homeworld. This Gem they sent won't be ready for me. But I won't charge in either, I promise."

"That's all I ask Steven. Go get 'em."

With that last embrace in parting, Steven raced on to the beach ahead, headed right for the temple.

* * *

Just over a minute later he was hurrying through the door, flailing his arms at Pearl in silence after noting she was on the phone. The strangeness of that had yet to occur to him.

She acknowledged his call for attention with a gesture for patience. "Oh, one moment, or several as it will probably end up becoming, you know how it is with me being a Gem and all."

After setting it to mute, she placed it down on the counter and folded her arms. "Steven, as much as we all love having you back, if this is a panic attack about the breakfast bagel not turning out right-"

"Connie thinks there's a new Homeworld Gem coming to get Peridot!"

Pearl's expression dropped, her hand fumbling for the phone again. Before bringing it back up, she took a deep breath to compose herself.

"Go get Garnet and Amethyst, I'll be right with you."

While he was off to the temple door, she unmuted the call.

"Sorry, it turns out this is a real emergency. I'll call you back when it's resolved, alright?"

By the time she walked over to the warp pad, Steven, Garnet and Amethyst had gathered at the door. Again she folded her arms, this time with more concern than anything.

"Before we go over to the barn, is there anything more we should know?"

"Well that's down to Connie, she only had time to say that a news article from Thorway tipped her off before she had to hang up. That and Lapis went to the barn to get Peridot here."

Right on cue, the warp pad activated. All four of them went into a defensive posture until they saw two figures materialize. To the relief of all, Lapis and Peridot had arrived safely.

"And I told them that waiting months for the next season of _Camp Pining Hearts_ was just unacceptable! Don't they know how painful the suspense of not having the next episode is?"

Lapis rolled her eyes while waving to the others. "I'm telling you Peridot, it's not that big a deal. It's not going to be anything groundbreaking when it does come out, so no point in getting in a fuss. Hey Steven."

Steven merely lifted his hand for a short wave, waiting for the two to step off the warp pad. "Glad you're okay Peridot."

She in turn looked at all of the Gems surrounding her. "Yes, Lapis informed me of Connie's, 'discovery'. I suppose this is as good a place as any to bunker down until she gets here. Unless you plan to take me to the moon."

"I don't think that will be necessary." Garnet dematerialized her gauntlets, but nonetheless remained cautious. "I haven't foreseen any battle with this new Gem, yet. That doesn't mean I don't believe Connie, only that we should have time to prepare properly."

Pearl hummed in thought, clasping her chin. "We still have the escape pod, admittedly it's at the barn and not in any position to fly. But if we strip out the tracking system, we could wire it back into the warp network again. And if we restart some of the robonoids as well-"

"Pearl." Garnet interjected with a very cool fold of her arms. "Don't get carried away just yet. Aquamarine caught us by surprise, this time we have to keep everything organized. And that means sitting down to assign roles first."

From her own corner of the gathering, Amethyst shrugged, noting that Lapis had a similar reaction.

Steven on the other hand was more upbeat, wrapping an arm around Peridot's shoulders. "We can set up a whiteboard, and flow charts, and brainstorms! Peridot can make a slideshow, Connie can do more research on the internet, and I can make everyone sandwiches!"

"Living room first. Pearl, if you could begin with the organization, we can work on the tracking system later."

She nodded in agreement, after which all but two of them dispersed into the rest of the house. Amethyst and Lapis were left behind, the latter of which was first to comment.

"Just before all this, I was having a nice conversation with Sadie. Felt like things had actually settled down enough for me to start getting comfortable. And then it starts all over with Homeworld again."

"Lapis, not to be rude, but if you're not used to it by now…" Amethyst chewed her lip before she went and said something mean spirited anyway. "Welcome to the Crystal Gems, where every other week means a new panic about losing people you care about." She sighed and nearly shoved past, finding a seat at the gathering in the living room on the faint hope she'd actually get a worthy role.

Lapis herself stood there a while, solmen in expression, and her eyes shaded a little by her fringe. Her hand tightened, and perhaps for a moment the waves outside crashed in a little harder than usual. The moment passed when she made herself calm down and follow suit.

In the meantime, Steven and Peridot had both found comfortable spots on the lounge, watching as Pearl began drawing up a spreadsheet of tasks and their names, including Connie.

"You're not panicking as much as I thought Peridot. I mean, after the Roaming Eye came you were really booking it."

"Well Steven, this time I don't know who or what's after me. And I'm choosing to see that as a good thing." She knocked her heels together idly, now wishing she had remembered to get her pad from the charging station. A distraction was still more than welcome for her. "And while I appreciate that Connie was concerned enough to warn you about potential danger to me, I of course have to remain skeptical. It's entirely possible this is just a false alarm after all."

"Maybe, but Connie sounded pretty sure. We'll know when she gets here anyway."

By then, Pearl had finished her spreadsheet, a large grid with several columns of tasks ready. Garnet stood silently on the other side of the whiteboard.

"Alright, as you can see, I've put myself down for warp pad tracking and robonoid reprogramming for starters. Peridot, I'd appreciate your help with the latter certainly, but there are plenty of other tasks that you and everyone else might want to consider first. So far the only time constraint is when the tracking system is rebuilt and it picks up this rogue Gem, unless Connie tracks it down first with help from the internet. Any questions?"

Peridot raised her hand almost immediately.

"Why repair the robonoids? We aren't using the Homeworld warp to rescue the human Lars, are we?"

Pearl placed her forehead into her palm. "This is going to take a while." She pulled away to begin gesturing with the green marker in hand. "The warp pads at the communication hub and Mask Island have yet to be repaired. While I doubt there's anything of particular use in either area, we could use the extra coverage to chase down the Gem if she tries to escape on foot. And there's no harm in letting her waste time on a lost cause."

Garnet adjusted her visor ever so slightly, subtle enough that Steven was the only one to notice.

"Alright, but I would much rather work on the tracking system first anyway. Fixing two pads is a minor task that can wait."

Pearl made a small mark where 'Peridot' and 'Tracking' intersected, below the one she had placed in her own row.

By the time Amethyst and Steven had worked out their assignments, the former opting to retrieve items from the barn in safety, the latter forgoing making sandwiches in favour of keeping everyone on task and motivated, and Garnet settling for a patrol of every working pad early on, Connie had arrived.

While all were relieved to finally have answers at the ready, Lapis in particular was grateful that she had been given a reprieve from finding her own role in the plan. So far, nothing had come to her.

Connie was slow to make her way in when she saw the gathering of Gems. "I told my parents that we'd only be planning for now, but I didn't realize you were this organized."

"Well Connie…" Pearl tapped her fingers together awkwardly. "I wish we actually were. To be honest, we haven't actually been able to plan anything significant without more details on this Gem you've found out about."

"Right, yes." She hurried over to the couch, sitting down beside Steven and pulling her laptop out to set on the coffee table. "I did more searches on the way over, and I even found a few photos taken right before she warped away. So far, no-one else has seen her."

While the pages loaded up, Peridot hummed in thought of her own. "She probably went to the kindergarten to search the secret lab first, then the beta kindergarten. Standard search protocol. All we need to do is-"

Her line of thought stopped abruptly as the first image finally came up. The other Gems had gathered around by then, all struck with surprise, and mild fear at what they saw.

Steven, Connie and Amethyst were the only ones who felt oblivious to the apparent revelation.

The photo in question showed a Gem of dark grey and black colours running to the warp pad through the strawberry fields. Her hair was shaped in that of a square pyramid, and both her shoulders and skirt had black fins laid out over them.

Of the Gems, Peridot was most shaken, which prompted Steven to ask the obvious question.

"What is it? What's so bad about this particular Gem?"

Pearl was about to speak, but instead covered her mouth with her hand and stood up to step away. Garnet lifted her visor for several seconds before standing up as well. Amethyst, while concerned, was still too clueless to know how to properly react.

When Peridot finally did speak up, it was with a mortified look all across her face. "I've never seen this type of Gem before. Do you realize what that means? A Homeworld Gem that a certified kindergartener doesn't know about?"

Steven took the time to think about it, and came to a typically optimistic conclusion. "She's a fusion? Maybe she's running from Homeworld, and we got this all wrong!"

Peridot nearly ripped her hair out in the explosion of frustration that came, instead settling for wrangling Steven's shoulders. "She's new, Steven! She's a new Gem grown specifically to hunt me down! This is terrible! This is disastrous! Nowhere is safe, nowhere!"

It took the combined efforts of Lapis and Amethyst tugging Peridot off Steven to make her stop shaking him, and a supporting hold from Connie to bring him back to his senses. For that, she glared at Peridot with her own annoyed look.

"I was going to show you the second picture, but if this is your reaction-"

"Oh, it gets worse does it? Does it!?"

Garnet stepped in yet again to calm Peridot down.

"Panicking does nothing useful, remember?" She looked back to Connie and gave a silent nod.

After another glare, she leaned back over to the laptop and brought up the second image. The Gem in question was now standing on the warp pad, the black pyramid on her right shoulder that was clearly her Gem now visible. It was her size that had finally been revealed to them that was more concerning however. The fact that she took up the entire space on the warp pad alone told them all enough.

Not nearly the size of a Diamond, but definitely larger than any other single, uncorrupted Gem they knew of.

And the diamond on her chest was a stark white.

Steven's expression lowered again as he took all of that in, feeling he could only state the obvious. "She works for White Diamond. She's involved now too. All three have issues with Earth, because of me."

Connie was quick with the show of support. "Steven, don't blame yourself. She was bound to get involved eventually. At least we know what her agent looks like."

Peridot was still frantic, clinging to both Gems behind her by then, leaving Garnet to take charge as she always eventually did.

"It doesn't matter if she's an unknown Gem, or just another Jasper equivalent. We are the Crystal Gems, and we will find a way to stop her. Size is not a problem."

"Isn't it? Who knows how powerful she is? She's already the size of Sardonyx on her own!"

Garnet smiled at that moment. "Exactly."

While Pearl took that assurance to heart, Garnet looked back to the others. "When we locate her, Pearl and I will fuse to face her first. Sardonyx is ideal for playing nice, and going rough when it comes to that. Steven, Amethyst, be ready as Smoky Quartz to follow up our attack. Lapis, Peridot, you'll provide ambush with your respective powers. And Connie…"

Connie looked up at her, filled with concern over the impending battle of her own. Jasper and the corrupted Gems seemed far less threatening when compared against a Gem that clearly towered over any human.

"You're our secret backup. We don't know what to expect, so if she has the power to incapacitate us all, like Aquamarine did, it will be up to you to intervene. The Diamonds don't consider humans a threat." At that, Garnet's smile became a half cocked grin, one hand balling into a fist and slapping into the other. "Let's prove them wrong."

"Yay for human power!" Steven stood up from the lounge, hand raised above his head.

Connie soon followed, lifting her hand up with a smile. "Human power!"

Not wanting to be left out, Peridot joined in as well. "Metal power!"

"Amethyst power!"

The others looked to Amethyst, who shrugged it off, her arm raised as well. "What? Shapeshifting power doesn't have the same ring to it."

Keeping to his assigned task, Steven bounced his hand up eagerly to encourage the others. "Come on Pearl, your turn."

"Oh, alright." With a bit of hesitation, Pearl lifted her hand as well. "Pearl power!"

Lapis blew her fringe out of the way. "Water power!"

At last, Garnet raised both her hands, proudly showing off the two Gems in her palms. "Fusion power!"

* * *

The next few hours went by quickly for all but Lapis, who had elected to sit outside and watch the ocean on the off chance the mystery Gem was planning to swim to Beach City, mostly to not get in the way.

Garnet and Amethyst left almost immediately for the barn, Amethyst returning after a while with the escape pod minus sole remaining drill. From the look of it she had yanked it off rather than cutting it off with her whip.

That left Peridot and Pearl working together again on rigging the two devices together again, Peridot taking the time to note the irony of the fact that it had originally been used to track her down.

Steven and Connie poured through several more news sites, looking for any trace of the black Gem beyond what they already knew from her arrival in Thorway.

"So Steven, didn't you tell me that one time about Peridot explaining that newer Gems weren't as strong as the older ones? And how there were lots of 'defective' exit holes on Homeworld?"

He was in the middle of reading an article about alien conspiracy theories, for once not written by Ronaldo, but still heard enough to nod. "Yeah?"

"Well, I'm just wondering why the Diamonds would even make a new Gem. If she's that big, where did they even find the space to grow her to that size? Would they still be making new colonies out there?"

The sigh Steven made was more exasperated than he would have liked. So many questions had been pressing since his return. And Connie's were absolutely valid, and even important under the circumstances, but they were still a few among many.

"I don't know. I saw what the plan for the Earth colony looked like, and I guess that's what Homeworld as a whole looks like. But if they have been making new colonies since, why was Peridot still grown on Homeworld and not in a better location? It doesn't make sense."

"You're right, I'm sorry I asked. I guess questions and speculation is all we have to go on."

"Maybe."

The article was soon closed after providing nothing of use, taking Steven back to the picture of the Gem on the warp pad. This time he looked closer at her, the blank expression on her face, the three layers of arched plates coming from her shoulders. The midriff above her skirt that looked strange without a navel of any sort. Parts of her looked a little complex for a typical Gem body.

"I wonder, these plates on her shoulders and skirt. They must be physical, not made of light like the rest of her. But if they're meant to be armor pieces, why are there so few?"

Connie took a turn at examining the photo in detail. What concerned her more was the Gem itself, four surfaces coming to a point instead of being faceted like virtually every other Gem she had seen, Jasper aside. Everything about her seemed a little off.

"Peridot can't summon a proper weapon, right? If this is a newer Gem like her, maybe those plates are part of a physical weapon that she assembles instead. They'd have to expect the Crystal Gems would try to fight her at some point."

Steven looked at the plates again. A lot of physical Gem weapons looked nasty, but there was a sense of elegance to the design that made him fear what those plates would turn into. Elegance meant finer design, and thus deadlier weapons.

From across the room came triumphant exclamations from Pearl and Peridot.

"Yes! Given enough time I can connect this tracking system to my pad and have constant monitoring of warp activity!" Peridot had jumped up in glee, that subsided slightly when she noted Pearl's lack of amusement. "I'm sure I can also provide similar functionality to your 'phones' when I have merged the two technologies together. If only we did this sooner when searching for Jasper."

"That would have been useful yes, but now it's going to be invaluable. Thank you Peridot."

The warp pad began to energize at that exact moment, while the tracker alarm in the escape pod blared off a warning.

"Aah! She found me!"

Peridot leapt for cover, while the other Gems and Connie made for defensive positions. Pearl was quick with orders.

"Steven, guard Peridot! Connie, be ready to strike! She can't materialize standing up in here, not at her height. That's your opportunity!"

The energy beam landed on the pad, casting them all in the familiar glow. As soon as it dissipated, Garnet was left standing there, hands raised for caution.

"Easy Gems. I saw this was the time to come back and test the tracking system again." She turned her head slightly to either side. "Good work on your reactions."

All the Gems relaxed a little, except for Peridot who was still cowering behind Steven and chattering away into the collar of his shirt.

"And don't worry. Amethyst is coming in just a moment."

Not long after Garnet stepped off the pad, it powered up again to allow Amethyst to arrive just as predicted.

"Yo." With a casual flick of her hand, she tossed Peridot's pad over to her. "I finally found it. You really need a better spot to charge it from."

Peridot came out of hiding to catch it, frowning at Amethyst a little before reattaching it to her arm, and feeling that much better for it. "I calculated the optimal path for Earth electrical wiring to go through, and applied those calculations to my standard routine based around usage, occasional departure from the barn and when I need to get away from Lapis' snoring. It's fine charging there."

Amethyst rolled her eyes, but still let the matter drop at that.

The brief turn of the conversation had given Steven time to think, and eventually come to a question that he couldn't avoid asking any longer.

"So Garnet, don't you have any idea where this new Gem will be when we find her?"

That made her reach under her visor, rubbing all three of her eyes in an effort to hide her own discontentment, made harder still by the attention placed on her. As always, there was nothing easy about admitting to a shortcoming.

"No, I don't. I didn't want to say anything until I was certain, but so far something about her is eluding Sapphire's future vision."

The effect was exactly what she feared. Everyone else grew concerned over that implication.

"Gems, this doesn't mean she's prepared for us, or that the Diamonds have found a way to hide their agents from foresight."

Despite knowing better, Amethyst couldn't help butting in. "Aquamarine and Topaz certainly got away with it…"

"And I still blame myself for not being ready for them. The point is, we can't fully rely on future vision anyway, even when it does work." She lowered her hand at last, letting her arms fold back up. "We have the technology to find her, and we have the teamwork to take her down. Not knowing the outcome only means we try harder."

As if to punctuate her point, the tracking system blared out yet another alert.

Pearl moved to investigate, dipping her hand into the system momentarily before sighing and pulling it out.

"Beta kindergarten's pad just activated. She'll be there any second now."

"I knew it!" Peridot smacked her fist into her palm. "First the Alpha, then the Beta. She's seen the lab is ruined, and therefore useless!"

Connie hummed with her own note of concern. "She's been at the Alpha kindergarten for nearly a day then, based on when those photos were taken."

"And that means she's doing a thorough search everywhere she goes." Garnet brought her gauntlets back out. "Alright, we give it half an hour. Crystal Gems warp in and take positions before fusing. Crystal Temps ride in with Lion right after. Wait for Sardonyx to begin the attack, and don't get spotted before then. We good?"

An array of mumbling went around the others, until all nodded.

"Good. Steven, go tell Lapis the plan, and make sure Lion is ready. Connie, now would be the time to call your parents. Let's do this."

* * *

Exactly half an hour later, Steven, Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet materialized on the Beta warp pad, all in ready positions. There was no sign of the gem from their position.

After another search, Steven brought up his phone. "Gems to Temps, zone clear."

On the ridge to their right, a small portal opened, through which came Lion and the Temps, Peridot barely visible in the top of his mane. Lapis had her hands on Connie's shoulders for support during the trip, taking them off as she brought her own phone up.

" _Temps to Gems, no sign of Possibly-Onyx. Moving out._ "

Pearl's hand went to her face yet again. "I thought we agreed this gem was not a Black Onyx of any sort."

Steven gave one of his characteristic shrugs. "We can't keep calling her 'mystery gem', can we? I mean, you've barely told us about mystery girl, but that's different, since it's private for you."

"Oh, right."

Immediately, she had gone back to thinking about the call that Steven had interrupted with his urgent news. Since then, she hadn't even thought to follow up that sudden end with even a quick update, at least until the reminder. It was a sudden distraction that she didn't need.

Fortunately for her, Garnet was still observant as ever.

"Call her once we have this Gem bubbled. Time to fuse."

Pearl nodded while stepping off the pad with Garnet, taking one last glance at Steven and Amethyst. "Yes, you're right. She's not going to distract me, I promise."

"I believe you."

While they began their fusion dance, Steven and Amethyst set off towards the rightmost valley in the direction which the Temps were headed.

"Amethyst, anything you think we should clear up before we fuse as well? I'm only asking because of that."

One of Amethyst's trademark sighs came, but in a rare moment for her she took the time to brush her hair back to look at him properly. "I told Lapis some of it. The thing is, every time a new Homeworld Gem shows up, someone gets poofed, or even snatched away. I'm really starting to worry that this time it'll be something even worse. Especially with all of us here together. What if she's here to shatter Peridot?"

"Unless Homeworld created a Breaking Point of their own, I doubt that'll happen. Peridot is probably one of the toughest Gems ever." Steven sighed as well, though it was less burdened than it might have otherwise been now that he knew what he knew. "Like Garnet said, we're a full team now. We've got Peridot covered, and she'll cover Smoky Quartz back. You ready?"

Amethyst made herself smile just a little, nodding as well. "Yeah, I'm ready."

She raised her hand for the high five, gem starting to glow in preparation.

Steven met it with a heartfelt slap, bringing the two into one yet again.

* * *

"Continuing report; as of yet, I have been unable to locate Peridot Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG. Detailed analysis of the Alpha Lab confirms destruction of all relevant facilities by renegades and experiments. The supply of a data recovery module will be required for further progress in tertiary mission protocol.

Secondary mission protocol has been put on indefinite hold. The first human lifeform I encountered spoke a language not shared by those at the zoo, by the subject known as 'Steven' or by 'Gareg'. Suspicions that they are diverse beyond initial assumptions should be confirmed. Further observation will be required to deduce if they obey a caste system of rank and status, or choose the renegade lifestyle of disorderly mingling. Such observation cannot be made without dedicated time allotments that have yet to be determined.

Primary mission protocol is underway. Capture and study of so called 'corrupted' Gems will begin as soon as suitable subjects are located. The lack of estimated numbers of said Gems indicates potential deconstruction and collection by the renegades prior to my arrival. Until further instructions are given, I will refrain from assaulting their base to obtain suitable subjects."

The towering dark grey Gem twisted the device in her hand exactly ninety degrees for transmission.

"Relay to Outpost Elysium, encryption standard Black-9. Inform the operating Obsidian to redirect transmission to Homeworld sector 8-11-P, file classification 'Cold Star Coal'. Transmit."

The device glowed for several seconds before blinking out of her hand, well on its way to the Elysium colony.

The Gem remained emotionless in her expression as she reached around to her right shoulder, removing a small Gem pad from underneath the topmost plate. It began to read out information to her, at which she made a slight frown.

"Undesignated Gems approaching? Scan for corruption."

The display blared a warning at her. Her frown deepening, she closed it up and placed it back into her shoulder before turning around.

"Why hello there!"

Immediately, she was beset upon by a maroon Gem almost equal to her in size, wearing attire she had never seen before, and approaching with all four arms in wide greeting. The beaming smile on her face was unnerving for one so blank in her own expression.

Sardonyx was hardly put off by that fact, using the lack of aggression as an opportunity to get much closer. "You must be the new Gem on the block! Or should I say, the rock! Oh ha ha ha!"

One of her hands landed on the Gem's left arm, below those pointed plates. Another went to hip, while the other two remained splayed out in a non-threatening way.

The Gem blinked, peering from beneath the cover of her hair mass. "You are a tri-fusion? What is the specific advantage in this combination?"

"Oh, fishing for secrets are we dear? Tut tut!" Sardonyx made a not-so-subtle attempt to urge the Gem to walk towards one of the branching valleys where the rest of the Gems were preparing their ambush. "Don't you know? We need to sit down for dinner and a nice chat before I spill all my delicious details. Why, I can even put on a show for you!"

To demonstrate, she summoned a wand and a hat, tapping one to the other and making a shower of confetti spray out over herself.

The Gem remained completely unfazed. Sardonyx less so.

"I see we have a hard sell in you my dear. If magic isn't quite to your taste, perhaps something a little more…" Two hands went behind her back, summoning her hammer in preparation for a strike. "Tangible will do?"

Her midsection spun around with great force, swinging the hammer right into the grey Gem's face. The impact sent her flying down the valley, right into a pillar of water formed into the shape of a hand for a slap to the face of incredible proportions.

Lapis cocked a smile at the sight. "That put some sense into you?"

As it turned out, the Gem in question had finally pulled an expression larger than 'very slightly annoyed'. That of 'slightly annoyed'.

"The Lapis Lazuli that returned? What are you-"

A large piece of scrap metal wrapped around her eyes at that moment, clamping down hard to a point where she felt her perfect pyramid of hair being cruelly malformed. The force with which it crushed in disorientated her enough to make her stumble into one of the cliff faces.

"Nice one Peridot!"

"You too Lapis!"

The Gem made a sound akin to what Lion did when yawning as she physically tore the metal off her head, finally having moved up to a look of 'annoyed'.

"The Diamonds told me you Gems were hostile!"

"Hey, down here!"

She looked down to see a brown coloured fusion, wielding three weapons she had never encountered before.

"I'd deliver a pun about fans right about now, but somehow, I don't think you'd be _blown away_ by it!"

To further invert the joke, Smoky Quartz swung all three yo-yos around the Gem's legs, pulling them tight just in time for Sardonyx to charge in with another sweltering underarm swing.

All of their combined efforts sent the Gem crashing into another cliff face at the end of the valley, where she remained unmoving, limbs spread wide.

After Smoky Quartz and Sardonyx shared a glance, the former huddled up into a ball at the latter's feat, who extended a free hand out to a point.

"We are the Crystal Gems!"

Peridot cupped her hands either side of her mouth. "And Temps!"

"Earth belongs to humanity! Not the Diamonds!"

On the ground, Smoky Quartz began to spin rapidly.

"Any Gem who works for them is not welcome here! Not now, not ever!"

The rolling brown ball began to heat up.

"And we will never stop fighting your tyranny!" Sardonyx nodded to Lapis and Peridot, who both readied their respective materials for the attack. She brought her hammer high above her head.

"How do they say it? Oh yes." The hammer swung down. "FORE!"

Smoky Quartz, in her rolled up sphere of burning doom, was launched right at the Gem pinned against the wall, causing an incredible spray of dust and debris to explode out from the impact zone.

Several seconds passed before the dust finally began to settle. Sardonyx dematerialized her hammer, taking a step towards the deep crater in the wall where the Gem had been.

To the relief of her, and both Lapis and Peridot, Smoky Quartz walked out looking no worse for the experience.

"That, was awesome!"

"Bravo! Bravo!" Sardonyx settled into applause with two of her arms, the others adopting a thoughtful look. "Though, if I might say so Smoky, haven't you already used a variation of that pun?"

Smoky Quartz gave a smirking shrug. "Eh, no biggie. First time she'd hear it, so who cares?"

Sardonyx gave a shrug of her own, glancing over to Peridot and politely extending a hand for her to climb onto for a safe way into the valley.

"Yeah, it's probably the last thing she'll hear too! That was an incredible use of your various talents!"

Lapis smiled a little more at Peridot's excitement, having drifted down earlier, but remained silent.

"Quite. Now, I suppose we need to begin the task of locating her gemstone. Remember, we are looking for a black square pyramid-"

All four Gems outside the crater whipped their heads around to the darkened space within. In spite of all that had been thrown at her, the dark grey Gem was still intact, and now looking positively enraged.

"You renegades are brutes! I didn't even threaten you, and you still tried to shatter me on sight!"

All four of the present Crystal Gems readied for another attack.

The Homeworld Gem was quicker, reaching her right arm around to her gemstone, and drawing out a long rod coloured in shining silver. Just before she saw the hammer materialize in Sardonyx's hands, a pillar of water hurtle towards her, several pikes of metal and a trio of yo-yo's heading for her limbs, she brought one end to her lips and held the rod parallel to her shoulders.

The effect was instant. A single note, that despite coming from what had taken the form of a flute, was anything but the sound that a woodwind instrument could possibly make.

It was piercing, resonanting, destructive.

Sardonyx fell apart. Smoky Quartz fell apart. Garnet fell apart.

Seven Gems were left writhing on the ground in pain, each clutching at their gemstones while the note reverberated within the crystalline structure of each. It wasn't seeking to shatter them, not yet at least. The intent, and very real effect, was pain and nothing more.

The Gem lowered the flute from her lips just briefly, letting the perpetuating effect of the note do its work.

"I came to ask Peridot questions about the Cluster, whether it was time to re-evaluate its worth over studying this planet. And I was met with exactly what Yellow Diamond told me to expect. Hate. Hate for your own kind! Hate because you do not know who I am! Hate because-"

She let out a piercing wail as a set of claws and a sword was dragged through the base of her neck right down to the skirt line before falling away. The damage caused her to fall forward onto her hands and knees, flute pinned beneath her palms while she wailed again.

Finding a spot amongst the pained Gems, Lion leapt in between them and the Gem, Connie holding Rose's sword directly at the face of her enemy.

"Earth doesn't just belong to humanity! It belongs to all life that wants to be free, including Gems! Homeworld hates freedom, and we will fight any Homeworld Gem who comes to take that away from us!"

The Gem lashed herself back up, the third wail causing Lion to stumble back, and nearly made Connie fall off altogether.

It was enough of a distraction to bring the flute back up and play a different note.

It was a complete inversion of the destructive note, bringing harmony, alignment and restoration to her form, fighting back the damage done by the Gemslayer's Blade.

By the time Connie had recovered, the Gem had risen back to her feet, and was ready to jump away.

"You can't hide behind that blade forever, Connie of Earth! I will create a note that harms humans if you persist, mark my words. Shungite is here to stay!"

And with that, she leapt off into the distant sky, well out of view from the valley floor.

Connie hopped down from Lion as soon as her awareness had caught back up. "Lion, go get Greg! Please!"

Lion gruffed, pawing at the ground for a few seconds, but finally roared a portal open and departed.

In that time, she had made herself think back to the lessons from her mother about how to handle a crisis. "Okay, first rule of triage, tend to the quietest first."

Steven was groaning, rubbing around his stomach. Pearl was starting to wail as well. Peridot had recovered enough to crawl over to Lapis, who was hissing and trying to scratch at her back.

"Ruby! Ruby!"

She had yet to meet Ruby and Sapphire in their separate forms, and it was quite possibly the worst possible situation for that to happen in.

When she moved closer to the huddle of blue, she found her first case of triage.

A vicious crack had formed on Ruby's gem. Already, her form was starting to lose cohesion.

"Oh no, no no no!"

With desperation driving her own, she scooped the Gem into her arms and spun around, bolting right for Steven. She could hear Sapphire crying more, too distressed to follow.

"Steven! Wake up! Steven!"

Still bleary eyed, and pained from the attack on his Gem, he was barely able to muster enough saliva to coat Ruby's hand before muttering a question to Connie.

"The others?"

Connie was barely able to hold back her own tears, looking over at Sapphire. Eventually she laid Ruby down beside Steven to bring the tearful Gem over as well, trying very hard to ignore the pain of the frost coating her arms.

"Only one crack. Steven…" She wiped her arm across her eyes in a futile effort to keep her own vision from blurring altogether. "I'm so sorry. I should've attacked sooner."

He coughed several times before shaking his head, finally closing his eyes to wait out the pain keeping his vision obscured. "You did your best. We got too confident. She... She took advantage."

"Shungite. She's a Shungite."

"Steven! Connie!"

Pearl scrambled over, looking very bedraggled, but no longer wailing in pain at least. She gasped in horror at seeing Ruby's state, unable to take her eyes away.

The crack had stopped spreading, and some of the finer lines had started to fade, but not nearly at the speed that Steven's healing was supposed to work at.

It was still a monumental relief that Connie leapt on as an opportunity to keep all the Gems from falling further. "She's going to be okay, eventually. That sound just needs time to dissipate, and she'll be okay. Right?"

A fresh portal opened up, Lion leaping back through once again. Greg launched himself from the beast's back to where the Gems had gathered, taking up Steven's hand immediately.

"What on Earth happened?"

Before Connie could answer, Peridot clambered over, shaking her shoulder.

"Lapis stopped moving! She's not glitching, I don't know what's wrong!"

After a pained look to Greg, she dashed over with Peridot to Lapis instead. She had stopped scratching at her Gem, and with no actual skin to damage there was nothing to suggest she ever had been. But, just as described, she had ceased all movement. No poof, no glitch. Simply stuck in that form.

"We have to get all of them to Rose's Fountain. Steven's in no condition to help."

"Can you carry her to the warp pad?"

In a feat of strength that impressed even herself, Connie gradually slipped her arms under Lapis and hoisted her up. While a lot heavier than Ruby, thanks to the feigned density of her form, she was still within her capacity to move safely.

"Greg! Get Steven! Pearl, you'll have to carry Ruby! We all warp over to the Fountain one at a time!"

He nodded hastily, scooping up his son and holding him close while waiting for Sapphire to climb onto the shoulder of his woolen jumper. Pearl was close behind, Ruby curled up in her arms as well.

With the other worst cases in hand, Connie looked to Peridot and Lion. "Peridot, ride him to the Fountain warp pad, and make sure the way is still clear."

Being proud of how masterfully she had handled the aftermath was as far from her mind as Homeworld itself. With three Gems incapacitated, and three more on the move, it left her with only one thought in mind.

The one who had caused the entire mess.

In the heat of the moment, and her surge of anger at Shungite's actions, she had forgotten to check on Amethyst.

She stumbled on after the group, wincing every time the pain in her chest surged, but determined to follow on. For once in her life, she felt like she had gotten off far more easily than she deserved, and the last thing she wanted was to whine about that fact.

The others would take notice and apologize for forgetting soon enough. There was no blame to be found in that, and she understood that at long last.

* * *

"My Diamond?"

"What is it Pearl?"

Pearl swallowed slightly, arranging some tasks on her data screen before moving them aside, just as Yellow Diamond looked at her.

"White Diamond wishes to speak with you."

Yellow Diamond rolled her eyes, flicking her hand in a very dramatic way before picking up her personal communicator.

"She's finally decided to take action. Good, we've enough moping about as it is."

The screen opened up in front of her. To the further annoyance of Yellow Diamond, White was turned away from her altogether, leaving only a vague shape of her hair visible.

"Deigned to speak with your fellow Diamonds at last?"

" _I would watch that tongue of yours, Yellow. Especially seeing as you have yet to apologize to Blue._ "

Yellow scowled quite a bit at that. "Her insistence on playing along with that farce led to an incredible breach of security! She should apologize to me for wasting precious time when I could have resolved-"

" _Be silent, Yellow. I do not want to hear it._ "

The scowl nearly turned to anger. "Excuse me!? I am not an Agate to be ordered to silence!"

" _And yet you whinge like one. I have not forgiven you for your treatment of Blue._ "

"And since when have I needed your forgiveness, White?"

The transmission flickered briefly, switching to a viewpoint that was further away. Still facing White Diamond's back, but now showing in her entirety. Her hands were positioned behind her back, one clasped in the other.

" _Your continued obsession with an insignificant planet is bordering on becoming a hazard to the Plan. The Cluster has failed, and we are losing too many resources, including time, by meddling with the renegades and the Rose Quartz hybrid. We must return our focus to the Carbon Army, and let Project 'Cold Star Coal' continue her work._ "

While Yellow did reign her anger at White's attitude in, she still sneered at the mention of Shungite. "That degenerate shard will endanger the Cluster, and all progress made on resecuring Earth. And you won't even tell your fellow Diamonds the primary purpose of her mission! Why should I care?"

White Diamond's fingers clenched. For a moment, she nearly turned her head, but eventually made herself refrain from doing so. She didn't feel eye contact was deserved at that time.

" _She has filed two reports within the past hour. Her first battle with the renegades has been an undeniable success, save for the human that has aligned herself with them. Shungite will adapt, and continue her mission. She will not fail where your agents so clearly have. End of discussion._ "

The transmission closed at that, leaving Yellow to stand up with a stamp of her foot that nearly sent Pearl flying across the dome space.

"Unbelieveable! Speaking down to me as if I were an insolent Quartz, and not her equal!"

Pearl, after recovering from the near miss, did her best to nod in a knowing way.

"Calling the only good thing to come from that miserable rock a failure, right after she uses a pathetic _shard_ to do her work!"

"It is very distressing, my Diamond."

Yellow glared at Pearl for a long moment, before finally relenting and sitting back down.

"Put the word out to my forces. Tell them to abstain from Earth for the time being, unless directed by me personally. We must find Rose Quartz and the human she brought with her before she escapes Homeworld!"

"Yes my Diamond, immediately."

* * *

White Diamond rubbed her left temple, sighing softly as she stared out across the depths of space.

"Pearl, you may allow the transmission from Outpost Elysium through now."

Her own Pearl nodded gracefully, relaying the instructions through her own data screen. "Yes my Diamond."

A large display of the Elysium Lab feed came up in front of White Diamond that time, allowing her to speak with the attending Gems face to face.

"You have a progress report, Peridot Facet-1B81 Cut-9T?"

The Peridot named, wearing the standard limb enhancers of her era and an eyepiece over her right eye, the left taken up by her gemstone, gave a quick nod while making the appropriate Diamond gesture with her extended hands.

"Yes. Lapis Lazuli Facet-129G Cut-11 and I have made significant progress since our last status report. We believe energization will be stable within four standard rotations, though this is due to change as further reports from Project 'Cold Star Coal' come in."

"Very good. You should be pleased to know that Shungite's first battle has been an almost total success. She even survived an encounter with a human wielding the Gemslayer's Blade. You are to be commended."

Peridot blushed so hard it looked as if her head was ready to explode. "A thousand words of gratitude, my radiant Diamond. We shall all redouble our efforts on your behalf."

"Work at a pace that is efficient and precise, Peridot. I have grown tired of mistakes being made due to rushed projects. Perfection is the key, not speed."

"Yes my Diamond. We will remain focused."

The transmission closed at that, leaving White Diamond to sigh softly, still maintaining her gaze away from the expanse of Homeworld.

"They weep for that which cannot be recovered. It is futile. We must look forward, my Pearl. The constant has grown brittle, change is required to become stronger."

The white Pearl nodded silently.

"Have my ship readied. I believe it is about time I visit Elysium myself."

"Yes my Diamond, right away."

The black screen closed in around White Diamond's head, then popped altogether.

* * *

(Imgur link for Shungite, copy and paste this onto end of URL; D4blQBJ )


	2. Eight Rocks, Round the Clock

"Nothing! Two photos in the middle of the night, and then nothing!"

It was rare for Connie to become frustrated to the point of anger those days. But then, with Steven in a hospital under the care of her mother and Greg, Lapis and Ruby submerged in the Rose Fountain while Pearl, Amethyst and Peridot watched over, and her left to try and find anything of note about Shungite with literally no success…

Her anger was quickly sapped by the presence of Sapphire, slowly floating by with a stack of Steven's clothes, waiting to be folded and packed for the next visit to the hospital.

Whatever curiosity Connie had about the Gem couple had been vastly overshadowed by her driving need to track down Shungite. But with nothing to show for her effort, and the very unusual presence of the only other Gem in the house…

"Need help, Sapphire? I'm not getting anywhere with this."

Sapphire stopped on the spot for several seconds, before sighing. "Help would be appreciated. Thank you Connie."

She set the stack on an empty part of the floor and got to work immediately, arranging each item in a neat pile for easy organization when it came time to expression remained unchanged, even after Connie sat down opposite her to assist.

The silence persisted until Connie began attempting to speak up, only to shy back when the words didn't come, and again, and again.

The fourth time, she finally found a sentence that made some semblance of sense. "Sapphire, I'm sorry."

Sapphire stopped mid fold of a shirt, eventually sighing again as her head lowered.

"Connie, I know you blame yourself for what has transpired."

She nodded as well, putting one of Steven's pairs of shorts on the pile to free her hands. "I know you have future vision, but I had to say that at least anyway."

To her surprise, Sapphire shook her head as she lifted it back up.

"No. I know, because I have been blaming myself as well." Her hand brushed her fringe up, allowing her solitary eye to look at Connie properly. "I have explored every single path in the future ahead of us since the attack. Shungite has not appeared once. What I, as Garnet, brushed off as a minor inconvenience nearly destroyed us. And it is only now that I see that it is something that is unique to Shungite. Somehow, she is able to evade my precognition altogether."

Connie looked at her quietly, then let her own gaze fall to the floor. "I don't know what to say."

"It is alright Connie. Fate was not working against us, despite my overzealousness. Had Garnet asked Steven to fuse with you, and Stevonnie had fallen instead, you would have quite possibly been harmed by Shungite. And you certainly wouldn't be in a position to save us. That is how I have chosen to deal with my guilt for the time being, and I hope it will help you as well. The time for rumination is not while our loved ones are in pain."

"Wow, that's actually rather, uh, what's the word…"

"Prepared?"

Connie gave something of a belated shrug, to which Sapphire did the same.

"After thousands of years of advising, you develop a talent for knowing exactly what to say for a given situation." She shook the fringe back down over her eye. "Listening to Steven's speeches has helped as well."

Rather than letting the reminder get her spirits down, Connie took the attempt at lightening the mood for what it was. "Yeah, he's getting good at that." She sighed again, moving on to another of his identical shirts. "I just really don't know what else to do. I know he'd want me to keep busy so I'm not left with time to be anxious, but there's really nothing I can search for on the internet until Shungite reappears, and chances are that will be when we next encounter her anyway."

"That is why I am folding clothes, rather than watching over Ruby's healing process. She knows I will be there for her at the exact time I need to be, and until then I will do my best to ensure others I care about are tended to as well." She reached her small hand out to Connie's arm, touching it gently. "It does not have to be a significant task to be a worthwhile one. When we next encounter Shungite, we will be more cautious, and learn from our mistake. And Steven will have fresh clothes."

The depth of the conversation distracted Connie to the point that she hadn't realized they were just about done with the clothes in question. The last pair of shorts was being folded up by Sapphire.

"Thanks Sapphire. Remind me to sit down with you as Garnet more, just for a chat."

"I will be sure to, Connie. Now, seeing as the clothes are done, the others should be returning from the Fountain any moment now."

Right on cue, the warp pad activated. Pearl had Ruby in her arms, while Amethyst was carrying Lapis. Peridot was at the front, and quickly rushed to the bathroom.

Connie was on her feet shortly after, watching as Sapphire floated over to reunite with Ruby. From there, she could see Lapis was still unconscious.

"What's happening?"

Pearl nodded to the others while down on one knee, allowing the two Gems their moment together. "Ruby's gemstone has healed, she'll be back on her feet soon enough. We didn't want Lapis waking up in the Fountain's water and getting panicked, so she'll rest in the tub for a while. I get the feeling she's experiencing a problem that didn't result from Shungite's attack."

By then, Amethyst had followed Peridot into the bathroom, from which came the sound of plastic clacking against plastic and ceramic. The shower curtain had been pulled down.

"Right, I guess since Steven won't be using it for a while anyway…"

Connie's line of thought was interrupted by the sound of Garnet taking form at long last. Compared to her usual stoic self, she looked noticeably more exhausted, even needing to put a hand on Pearl's shoulder to support herself.

"I'm alright. I just need some time alone."

"Of course, Connie and I can take care of things in the meantime."

Garnet nodded in approval before making her way over to the temple door. It opened just in time for her to step through, remaining that way long enough for those outside to see her sitting down by the lava pool before it closed again.

The brief time alone with Connie was exactly what Pearl wanted, and she made the most of it.

"I haven't had time to say it before, but I wanted you to know that I am incredibly proud of how you handled things. I wouldn't have handled it nearly as well if our situations were reversed."

While the reassurance was comforting, it reminded Connie of the other problem on mind. "I forgot about Amethyst. She hasn't said anything to me since, and I don't know how to apologize."

Pearl sighed quietly, getting down on one knee again to meet Connie's eye line properly. "She doesn't take it personally, I discussed it with her at the Fountain. It was a chaotic situation, and sometimes we forget, she understands that. I think it's more to do with feeling vulnerable again in her case, but don't quote me on that."

That moment was nicely followed up by Amethyst returning from the bathroom, resting one hand on her hip. "Peri's gonna keep an eye on her. Anything else you need me for Pearl?"

Pearl looked at her briefly, then at Connie. "I'd like to discuss what we know about Shungite and start working on an observation plan. But first…"

In a demonstration of insight, Amethyst sighed while waving the incoming apology off. "Everything's cool Connie. I'm not mad at you. It's just rough not having Steven, Garnet or Lapis around, so I don't have much to say. Don't sweat it."

Connie did her best to smile, walking over to hug Amethyst lightly. "Just to be sure, okay?"

After a moment's hesitation, Amethyst returned the embrace. "Sure thing."

Peridot grumbled something to herself, having seen the hug after exiting the bathroom. It drew the attention of the others at least, which made her cease the grumbling quite quickly.

"Alright, now that the air is cleared, and those who need to be here are…" Pearl strode across to the whiteboard, still marked with the grid of assignments from their previous meeting. She flipped it over to make use of the other side, this time for a checklist of 'Shungite Facts', as she wrote across the top.

"Now, we need to collect everything we know about her, even if it might sound completely obvious. Overlooking something could lead to another disaster, so don't be afraid to state whatever comes to mind. Apart from the fact that she is black and grey in colour I suppose."

Almost immediately after, Peridot raised her hand for attention. Something she had also learned from Steven over time.

"Yes Peridot?"

She lowered her hand to clear her throat. "My knowledge on this 'Shungite' is of course almost as limited as every other Gem's, Connie aside. However, my expertise as a kindergartener tells me that she is too large to have been grown on Homeworld within the last millennia."

Pearl scrawled out 'Not a true Homeworld Gem, newly grown' on the board.

"Thus, it is likely she has been grown on one of the newer colonies, presumably one rich in carbon given her name. The fact that I have not heard of even her type should also indicate her growth has been kept secret from those in the Peridot level of Gem hierarchy, or at least the wider ranks of Peridots."

'Secret Homeworld colony project' was added underneath the first line.

Rather than continuing, Peridot hummed in thought, glancing towards the door as she did so. "It is possible that records contained in my limb enhancers may have some stray files of relevance. But that possibility seems remote under the circumstances."

"Well, what if you went through Lion to Lars and tried accessing the Gem files on Homeworld?"

"An excellent suggestion Connie. But-" And Peridot took the moment to raise her finger to her to emphasise her point. "Yellow Diamond would have blacklisted my limb enhancers from network access long ago. Technically, colony security would be possible to break given time, but we have no easy access to any of the colonies. And even if the communication hub here was still intact, it would be far too primitive to interface with even the hub on colony Elysium to access what we'd need."

Connie shrank back into her seat at just how effective the answer was at shutting down her suggestion.

"And no, I cannot change the identification codes in the limb enhancers. Any discrepancy would have the same result as a blacklisted access. Unless we found a Peridot with identical enhancers and somehow copied her codes to mine, there's no way to remotely access Homeworld files. And I highly doubt we could pull off such a feat without raising any alarms and calling down the wrath of the Gem fleet."

Pearl summarized all that under 'Peridot's limb enhancers are irrelevant'.

"They're not completely irrelevant I'll have you know!"

"As far as matters surrounding Shungite are concerned, they might as well be. In any case, it's Connie's turn."

There was a hesitant glance at the laptop, accompanied with a sigh, before she sat up to speak. "Well, she has a flute that hurts Gems, and apparently can heal her body. I don't know if it's her Gem weapon, or a real one that she summons like you do with some items Pearl."

Pearl hummed while jotting all that down. "If it's specific to her Gem then we're out of luck. She'll just summon a new one if we break or steal it away from her. But as I recall it did look like actual metal rather than a light construct."

'Investigate tangibility of flute' came next on the list.

"In any case, she can just hide it away where we'll never find it, until she's ready to use it again of course. I'm not prepared to let anyone risk trying to take it off her until we know more."

"She also says she didn't 'have a note ready for humans yet' before jumping off. I don't think she came to capture more people, otherwise she'd have a sleeping note or something already. She left that one man alone in Thorway after all."

"Yes, that is something to keep in mind. I'm not ready to believe she was being honest about just coming to ask Peridot questions, but I think we can assume that Beach City's residents are safe for now."

'Not interested in humans' marked the halfway mark of the whiteboard list.

Amethyst took that moment to chime in. "She's also super tough. That combo we pulled off should've poofed any Gem. And Rose's Sword wasn't enough either. I dunno how we're supposed to take her out if all of us attacking at once didn't do the job."

Pearl nodded, gesturing with the marker again. "Yes, which is why I believe we need to adopt a more stealthy approach with her. We'll wait until Garnet has recovered before deciding how to study her safely. Oh, Connie, what about the pod she landed in?"

Connie glanced at her laptop again before sighing in further defeat. "It was gone before the locals could haul it away. Shungite probably moved it somewhere secret. And, she hasn't appeared since the attack, sorry."

In that time, she had added 'Incredible resilience to all attacks'. "That's alright. Better that she run and hide and not bother anyone for a while."

The silence began to creep back in as it became apparent no-one else had anything significant to add.

"Alright, I suppose we can leave the board here if anyone remembers anything. Amethyst, I'd like you to accompany me to the galaxy warp so we can recover the limb enhancers you dropped off the side."

Peridot's brief moment of glee was overshadowed by her cynicism. "Be sure to collect all ten 'fingers' as well, missing even one could prevent the database from being accessed properly. The legs I'm not as concerned about, but more Gem tech to salvage could certainly still be of use."

While Pearl couldn't help rolling her eyes at that, Amethyst was already shrugging it off and making her way to the warp pad.

"I'd apologize Peri, but to be honest, they were really freaky to think about at the time." She turned around on the pad itself and grinned. "Though, I wonder how they'd look in purple. You can make them bigger, right?"

Peridot narrowed her eyes. "No, I cannot."

"Shame. Not like I need them anyway."

As soon as Pearl joined her on the pad, they both warped away, leaving Peridot and Connie on the couch.

The former turned to the latter, looked at her for several moments, and then cleared her throat.

"Connie, you are more familiar with the internet and its many, many, many subsidiary devices, correct?"

"Yeah?"

Peridot brought her fingers together in front of her chin, adopting what one article had described to her as 'a thoughtful pose'. "When the time comes, I may wish to call on your help with devising a program that can relay the tracking system from my escape pod to any compatible device. I am beginning to grasp the fundamentals of Earth coding, however, I lack certain skills to make the program more… accessible, to you humans."

Connie blinked, staring back for a few moments while trying to make sense of it. "Uh, what do you mean? We're the only ones who will use it anyway, right?"

"Yes yes, but I have come to notice that many of these 'programs' have specialized icons and designs and names associated with them, very different from Gem organization. I simply want to ensure my hard work doesn't get lost amongst all the other programs that I have seen loaded on other devices. I keep mine well organized of course."

"Right, I think I can handle that."

A sudden calamity of sound coming from the bathroom made them both leap up and race over to the doorway.

"Lapis!"

She had practically leapt out of the bathtub in fright, knocking over several things in the process until she had both Connie and Peridot in a firm grasp.

"Is Steven okay!? Am I okay!?"

"He's fine Lapis." Peridot tried to get her to calm down by holding her back, rather scared herself of what Lapis would do in a panic. "What happened?"

At that, Lapis began crying. "Shungite tried to corrupt me."

* * *

 _Lapis Lazuli. Laaaaapissssss. Can you hear me? Can you see me? Laaaaapissssss…_

Her eyes flicked open. Immediately, panic rose. She was lying in a puddle of water. The sky was dark, and lifting her head allowed her to see an endless plain of glowing blue.

"No, not again!"

She brought her hands up, looking to each wrist frantically. No chains of water, no reflection of another, watching from beneath the surface. Not the mindscape of a fusion, but similar.

When the panic subsided, she fell back to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

"Why? Why bring me back here?"

"Lapis! Lapis!"

She lifted her head back up to see Steven sprinting for her, every step causing a large, loud splash in the endless puddle. Her paranoia lifted in lieu of joy at seeing a friendly face again, catching him in an embrace.

"Steven, you're okay!" When the elation passed, she leaned back from the hug and looked at him. "Are we fused somehow? The last thing I remember-"

"Was Shungite playing a harmful note." He did his best to smile when she looked a little relieved for that confirmation. "I don't think we're fused, no. After the attack, I woke up in a hospital, and then went to sleep a couple more times. I think it's been a day or two since." Once out of the hold, Steven took a step back to turn around and get a better look at their surroundings, what little there was to make of them. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I think it's more like we're in your mind right now. I think we're sharing your dreams after all."

Lapis sighed as she rose back to her feet, the water rolling off her dress without having soaked into it in the slightest. "I guess that explains why it's all blue now. But, if we're here, why aren't any of the other Gems appearing?"

A shrug was all Steven could give, as he had no real answer for that. "The others don't really dream properly. Maybe it's because we were both thinking about astral projection in the morning, and it somehow happened on its own? I don't really have a good answer for you."

"So we're stuck like this until we wake up then? I really wasn't hoping to do this so soon you know."

"I figured that. But, since we're here anyway…" Steven shrugged and gestured with his hands in a way intended to urge her on.

Her head went down in a deep sigh before coming back up. "Okay, alright. I don't really remember how I ended up with that dream I told you about, so I don't know if trying to force it will work."

She stretched out her arms and closed her eyes. Her hair began to whip around, despite there being no wind. A screen of water began to rise in front of them from the glowing puddle all around, slowly solidifying until Lapis was able to lower her arms and finally open her eyes back up. A vague image began to appear on the water screen.

Steven was immediately awestruck. "Aw cool! I've seen Pearl project a dream, but this is like actually watching one at a theater!"

Lapis blushed a little before her hand went up to cover her eyes in embarrassment. "Steven, promise me you'll look away if it goes to weird or dark places. There's still a lot of issues in my life I haven't gotten over."

He looked at the screen, which was still trying to find focus, then took hold of Lapis' hand. "I promise. You don't have to feel embarrassed around me, but I'll respect your wishes anyway."

"Thank you." She lowered the hand away, more out of curiosity at what was becoming clearer on the screen ahead. They could now make out a vague humanoid shape of green, darker on the limbs. Peridot with her limb enhancers, as she had described.

"This is it I think." Lapis grumbled when the image blurred again. "Agh, it's so hard to remember."

"Take it easy. Don't try to force the dream to come back, okay?"

"Yeah, alright."

Her hand clasped around his at last, while her eyes went into a more determined stare, remaining focused without pushing herself to remember.

At last, true clarity came to the screen itself. The Peridot in question was now easily identifiable, as were her glaring inconsistencies with the one they knew. Her Gem occupied her left eye socket, and the diamond on her chest was a stark white, not the yellow-green of their own.

Steven gasped at the realization. "Oh no, you're not dreaming! You're seeing through another Lapis Lazuli's eyes!"

Lapis tore her eyes away from the screen, her hand breaking free of his to aid in her confused flailing. "What? Steven, that doesn't make sense! The colonies are lightyears away! It took me ages just to reach the nearest one and warp back to Homeworld, how could I possibly be linking with another Lapis?"

" _Lapis? What's wrong?_ "

Both froze, their eyes slowly twisting back to the screen. The view shown went dark for a few moments, what little light there was peeking through flickering for several seconds before returning to the view of Peridot. She had just placed her hand over her eyes.

" _Nothing. Just hearing voices again. It must be the proximity to Cold Star Carbon._ "

The two Gems looked at each other again, and slowly nodded in agreement to keep their voices down.

Steven was first to ask the obvious question in a hushed voice. "Cold Star Carbon? They're working for White Diamond, same as that Gem we met, I think Dad said she was a Shungite. Maybe they're connected?"

"I was having the dreams before we met Shungite though. How could she have started a link just by arriving on the planet? It doesn't make sense!"

Steven attempted to sshh her out of desperation.

" _Lapis Lazuli Facet-129G Cut-11, is there a problem?_ "

They froze again, watching as the view turned. As soon as it settled on a new subject, their jaws dropped, too afraid to try and even make some sort of cover in the empty landscape.

The Lapis they were looking through had turned to a giant Gem of brilliant white, turned entirely away from her, but still unmistakable as to her identity.

Both whispered frantically in union. "White Diamond!?"

 _Laaaaapissssss. Laaaaapissssss. Can you hear me?_

" _Forgive me, my Diamond. As you know, Projects Cold Star Carbon and Cold Star Coal have both exhibited behaviour unlike any recorded in Gem history. We suspect…_ "

While their 'host' Lapis went into a ramble about technobabble that sounded rather like the sort of thing only their Peridot could make sense of, Steven and Lapis broke their eyes away from the screen to look at each other again.

"We need to break the link. If White Diamond sees you-"

"It might be too late. If Shungite reported seeing a Rose Quartz-Human on Earth already-"

" _Lapis Lazuli, please hold still._ "

They nearly fainted as they looked to the screen again. Two giant eyes had taken up the entirety of it, white irises around square-diamond pupils. White Diamond was looking right at them.

Several terrifying seconds passed before the screen went dark. When vision returned again, White Diamond had returned to her original position, looking away from them once more.

" _My apologies, Lapis Lazuli. Please, continue with your work, and keep me informed of any other side effects related to Cold Star Carbon. If they persist, I will assign my personal Apatite to begin therapeutic treatment. That goes for all of you, I am very pleased with your work._ "

A near chorus of voices all stopped to say the same chant, including the Lapis they were looking through. " _Our most humble gratitudes, our radiant Diamond._ "

Before anything more could be observed, Lapis collapsed the screen back into the water, sighing in great relief.

"I'm sorry Steven. I should have done that as soon as we saw White Diamond. I just…" Her hands balled up into very tight fists, the water around her feet starting to swirl. "I don't think I've ever been so scared to see one of the Diamonds before."

Steven nodded, once again reaching for her hand. "It's okay. I was really scared when I went up in front of Yellow and Blue Diamond. And now we know what's happening with your dreams."

"What if they keep happening? What if that Apatite is doing a Gem scan when it happens, and she finds out about the link?"

 _Laaaaapissssss. Laaaaapissssss. Who is Steven?_

"Stop asking me questions!"

Lapis sent a wave of water lashing out at the void around her, to Steven's further dismay.

"Lapis? I haven't been asking questions."

"Not you! That voice! Can't you hear her?"

Lapis felt her expression drop when she saw Steven clearly couldn't. Another layer to her paranoia of impending insanity. "It's my voice. A Lapis voice. I thought it was from the dream, but she's still talking!"

 _Laaaaapissssss. Laaaaapissssss. Why are you upset?_

"Because you won't leave me alone!"

In an ironic twist of fate, when she turned back around from her second outburst, Steven had vanished altogether.

"Steven? Steven!"

She fell to her knees and began running her hands through the water in terror that he had been pulled under by some means.

"Steven!"

No sign of him. Either he was lost to the depths below the puddle, or he had woken up again. She was too frantic to consider the more logical of the two.

The panic eventually subsided as time went on. Her constant need to change positions settled into her kneeling down and sitting on her ankles, as she had once done on top of the ocean tower. There were no stars to gaze over that time, just the empty void.

After some indiscernible amount of time, she heard Steven's voice at last, over the sound of him running to her. Again, she twisted around to hug him, this time out of joy that he was alright after all.

"I didn't know what to think Steven! What happened?"

"I woke up." When they parted yet again, he sat down in front of her to be more comfortable, still surprised by not getting wet in the dreamspace. "Pearl was there visiting, I told her you were dreaming but okay. I didn't want them panicking about White Diamond yet."

Lapis nodded in agreement with his choice. "So she's okay at least. What about the others?"

"Ruby cracked, but she's been healing in the Fountain. They've put your body there too to help, but I guess if you're still here it's not quite enough. Everyone else has gotten better, including Peridot."

"That's something good I guess. I just wish I could get out of this dream already!"

Steven lifted his arm to keep some of the non-wet water from splashing on his face. "Has that voice come back at all? What about the linked vision?"

"Nothing. It's been dead silent since you vanished."

Steven put his hand out yet again, still quick on the comfort. "We'll figure it out soon enough, don't worry. And I'll be here to keep you company."

Lapis made herself smile just a little at that. "Thanks Steven. I know I'm not exactly great company for someone who likes to chat. Peridot mostly likes to talk, and there's a difference alright."

 _Laaaaapissssss. Laaaaapissssss. Will you help me?_

"The voice is back!" As soon as she was on her feet, Lapis summoned up a pair of water hands, ready to strike at whatever appeared. "Why do you keep coming back? I can't do anything while I'm unconscious!"

From the area ahead of them, a towering pillar virtually exploded up into the void. The top fanned out into a pair of spectacular wings, and the vague shape of a head began to form.

"Help me. You drew the ocean away. You can do it again. Help me. Free me."

Steven moved up behind Lapis, this time using her to hide behind. "Lapis, I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"Laaaaapissssss. Is this the Steeeeevaaaaaan? Will he-"

The pillar and wings lost their form abruptly, crashing back down into the puddle with a surprisingly underwhelming force that quickly dissipated into nothing more than a ripple.

Lapis tilted her head, looking at the now still water in confusion. "What was that about?"

It took a tug of Steven's hand to get her to turn around. Yet again, she felt herself freezing up in terror.

Shungite was standing there, maybe fifty metres away, glaring at them both.

Despite his fear of the water pillar, Steven was instead quick to move for a protective stance of Lapis, pointing defiantly at Shungite. "Go away! You don't belong here!"

Shungite tilted her head. "I belong where there are things to be learned. I must ask questions. I must investigate. I must study."

"You hurt all of us! You've trapped Lapis in this dream, and you cracked Ruby! We don't want anything to do with you!"

That made the larger Gem falter very slightly. "Cracked? That should not have happened. I caused pain, not true damage."

"Well I don't care what you intended! You still hurt Ruby, and all of us!"

In that time, Lapis had strengthened her water hands, scrunching them into fists and hurling both right at Shungite. To her further horror, they passed right through her.

In response, she brought out the dreaded flute again.

"I must study the corruption. There is a shortage of corrupt gems loose on this world." She brought the flute to her lips. "I must make more."

Steven clutched at his stomach in horror as the note blasted out. It was vaguely similar to the Hurtful Note, but different. It carried with it the resonance of a Diamond's influence.

Shungite was not bluffing.

"Steven! Aaagh!"

He whipped around again, having felt no change in his gemstone. Lapis was a different case entirely, having fallen back to her knees and wrapping her arms around to scratch at her own gemstone once more. She was crying out in pain.

"No! I won't let it happen again! I won't lose you Lapis!"

He doused his palm in saliva and slapped it against her gemstone. Nothing.

The note grew in intensity, causing her to cry out again.

"Aaah!"

Her upper body snapped back up. Water began to well in her eyes and mouth. A third arm started sprouting from her left shoulder, mangly in size, and clawed at the fingers. Her legs began to swell out and extend, growing thicker and thicker as the rest of her body grew. Strands of hair began to twist and weave.

Soon, the water was gushing out, overwhelming her mutating form. The rest of her arms began to mutate as well, growing more jagged in appearance. Her hair had started to transform into serpents, spraying jets of water everywhere.

"Lapis!"

Steven was thrown back by a giant splash, right to the feet of Shungite. She stared on in her cold, uncaring way, still playing that note. No matter how hard he beat or kicked at her boots, she paid him no heed.

"Stop! Stop it!"

"Steeeeevaaaaaan!"

Eyes welling with tears, he couldn't help turning around.

What had once been Lapis Lazuli, one of his best friends, was now a writhing, monstrous sea serpent, spraying water into the void with every harrowing scream.

The note finally stopped.

* * *

"Lapis!"

Steven was bolt upright on the hospital bed, tears flying everywhere to dot the blanket over him.

"Steven! What's wrong!?" Greg was at his side with a hug of consolation immediately, Priyanka on the other side checking the monitor before offering her hand for comfort as well.

It took several deep breaths for Steven to calm down, during which he slumped back onto the pillow and rubbed his eyes clean.

"Dad, you gotta call the Gems! Lapis might be in danger!"

"I can call Connie, she'll have her phone ready. Just try to stay calm Steven."

Steven nodded hastily, still trying to take deep breaths. All he could do was watch as Greg left the room to make the call, holding onto hope beyond hope that the corruption in the dream wouldn't spread to reality.

When his breathing finally settled, Priyanka lightly sat on the side of the bed and moved her hand up to his chest. "That was much worse than waking up from a bad nightmare. How do you feel?"

"Scared. Really scared."

Steven sniffed back the contents of his nose. While it was unusual to talk about Gem stuff beyond their group, his time in the hospital with Mrs Maheshwaran had at least been an opportunity to bring her more up to speed. And at that moment, he felt he had to talk to someone about it.

"Gems work differently, and I'm scared that things that happen in a Gem dream can still affect their actual bodies. And I can't do anything to help Lapis from here."

Priyanka nodded in the best attempt at feigned understanding she could manage. "I know it may not be much consolation, but at least she is in the hands of people who know what to do. Whatever happens, she will be safe, one way or another." While she only knew of Lapis through what her daughter had told her, she still had a long history of offering comfort when it was needed most, even if it had to be an extension of the truth to be so.

It wasn't long after that Greg rushed back in, putting his phone away. "Lapis is upset, but okay. She's not corrupted. You can relax Steven."

Steven closed his eyes as a second wave of tears came, this time out of incredible relief.

Taking the opportunity, Priyanka slid back off the bed and moved to Greg's side, lightly touching his arm to indicate he should follow her out of the room. On the way, she pulled the door to, leaving it open enough to still hear Steven.

"I was going to discharge him tomorrow, seeing as the trauma around his gemstone seems to have healed. But, I'm worried that this outburst might have reignited some of the inflammation I found. This is all still speculation of course, but I completely understand being hesitant to let him stay until some colleagues are available to make their own judgement."

"Thank you, Priyanka. He's been through a lot, what with being taken to Homeworld and all. I think the last thing he wants is to be in a hospital bed, even without this new Gem running around." Greg scratched around the back of his bald spot, looking back through the window to Steven. From the look of it, he had gone back to sleep.

"Well, I'll do an examination this evening, and another tomorrow morning. If there isn't a recurrence of muscle and skin trauma, I'll sign his release so he can get back home to recover. I wish I could make house calls, but with how busy things are here…"

"Don't sweat it, you've already done so much for him, for all of us. We all truly appreciate it."

Priyanka met that with a bit of a smirk. "Consider it repayment for saving the planet time and again. That's how Pearl put it to me anyway."

Greg's face went red, the itch at the back of his head flaring up a lot. "Yeah-ha, she's like that a lot. I wouldn't take it personally. Actually, I think the two of you would get along well, but I know better than to get involved with her personal life." His expression sank a little. "Again."

"Just let Connie know that Doug will be around to pick her up when you get back. I understand that finding this rogue Gem is important, but she'll fall behind on schoolwork if it keeps up too long."

"No worries. From what I hear, the Gems are planning to leave Shungite alone for a while anyway. Won't be easy trying to relax with her on the loose, but sometimes it's a matter of accepting how things are for just a little while."

"I agree, Mr Universe. Speaking of which, I think a visit to the canteen is in order after we've checked on Steven again. We can pick up his lunch while we're there."

"Yeah, I think we could all use a coffee after that." He followed her back into the room, feeling a lot better for their conversation, but still harboring concern over what had frightened Steven so much, beyond the danger to Lapis.

* * *

In the depths of the ocean just off the Beach City shore, a deep rumbling began to rise from the seabed.

 _Laaaaapissssss._

In response came the wail of a sea serpent, waiting, biding its time for the moment it was called to the surface.

 _Laaaaazuuuuuuli._

The black screen closed in without pause, leaving silent darkness behind.


	3. The Apology

Once again, Steven found himself on the boardwalk before dawn. This time, it was to stare out across the ocean as Lapis had done. Wondering, thinking, waiting.

Three days since he had come home from the hospital, stomach still a little tender and sore from the ordeal over a week earlier, and his panic attack over Lapis.

She hadn't stepped outside the barn since going back there, with Pumpkin as her only company. He had visited the previous day when he felt well enough to get up out of bed, mostly just being there for her, but not knowing what else to say

Peridot had opted to stay at the beach house to work on her tracking program, and to advise Pearl on reactivating the robonoids. However good she was at hiding it with keeping busy, the fact that she was still afraid of getting a visiting interrogation from Shungite was clear enough to those who knew what those telltale signs were.

Amethyst had been taking up Garnet's duty of patrolling the warp pads, since she had been more quiet than ever after leaving the temple room. No-one was going out of their way to assist her, they all knew that would only cause frustration when she didn't want it, but it still left a noticeable gap in their daily routine to see her sit down on the couch for hours on end, gazing to places perhaps only she could see.

That left his own routine on mind at last. No sign or sighting of Shungite since the dream attack, and by Pearl's own instruction they were to try and ignore her as best they could so long as she didn't make herself a threat again. He wanted to go back to walking around Beach City, hanging out with The Cool Kids, chatting with Sadie at the Big Donut and helping out at the car wash.

The conflict between being Steven Universe of Beach City, and Steven Universe the Defender of Earth was stronger than ever.

At least, that's what he hoped he was known as. Steven Universe the Patron Boy of Defunct Ice Cream Cookie Brands Involving Felines sounded long in his head.

"What if they don't even remember Steven Universe, only Rose Quartz?"

A seagull landed on the boardwalk nearby and squawked at him. All he could do was sigh at the reminder of Centipeetle, and in turn the dream attack all too vividly.

"Shungite can corrupt Gems, I can't even heal them properly. How are we supposed to stop her?"

The seagull squawked again, hopped over twice, then tilted its head to look at him.

"Sorry bud, I don't have chips or bits to give."

Squawk!

"Go away. I'm not in the mood to talk with seagulls. Especially if you're the mean one that bit my hand."

The seagull tilted its head again, then raised its wings up threateningly and squawked with a definite frown in its eyes.

"Great, of all the seagulls to become intelligent enough to understand English, it's the mean one." Steven leaned off the railing and began waving his arms. "Shoo! Shoo! Leave me alone!"

Right before his eyes, the seagull began to swell in size, gradually transforming altogether. He took a step back in horror as it took a familiar shape.

When her face formed at last out of the corrupted body that had emerged from the seagull, Jasper gasped for air, reaching a hand out.

"Rose! Steven! Help me!"

He was too shocked by the sudden appearance to move, or say more than a few mumbled questions that didn't finish out.

"She's a monster! She's awful! She's in my head! Rose!"

"Who! You're bubbled Jasper! How is any of this happening!?"

"You know! You already know-"

Jasper roared in pain as an all too familiar note began to echo in Steven's ears, crashing to the boardwalk and writhing about.

The illusion was broken when a hand came to rest on his shoulder. He spun around and nearly slammed right into Ronaldo.

"Steven! Are you okay? Are the forces of nature speaking to you?"

Steven's jaw was trembling too much for him to open it properly explain. All he could do was bump past and make a pained sprint for the beach house yet again.

"Is there anything I can do to fend off the impending invasion?"

This time, when he burst in looking out of breath, Pearl was immediately rushing to his aid from her tinkering with the robonoids.

"Steven! What happened? Are you alright?"

"Jasper! Bubble! Shungite!"

Pearl whipped her head around to Peridot, who nodded and rushed over from her own work, then looked back to Steven. "I'll go check right now. Try to calm down, alright?"

Between breaths, he got out a nod. "Okay…"

Once Peridot was by his side, helping him to the sink, Pearl strode across the room to the temple door. Ready to open it to her room and make the trip down, it unexpectedly opened to the Burning Room instead. Through it, she could see Garnet at the end of the gesture pattern.

Rather than saying anything at first, she stepped through and watched Garnet return to her stoic position. The others only saw her when she chose to sit outside in the lounge, whereas she had been in enough to notice she was also sitting in her own room in exactly the same way.

"Steven believes Shungite is attempting to access Jasper inside her bubble."

There was no comment from Garnet.

With a roll of her eyes, Pearl moved across the room and carefully lowered the bubble containing Jasper's gemstone. Nothing had changed, and even bringing it up to her ear revealed no sound from within. Not even a faint resonance from the flute.

"I'd say it's just another attempt to scare him given what happened with Lapis, but he wasn't asleep this time. Unless he somehow dozed off on the boardwalk. Either way…"

Still nothing from Garnet.

"Garnet. Whichever one of you two is having this…" She chewed her tongue, wanting to choose her words carefully and correctly. "'Sabbatical', for lack of a better term, we're all worrying about you. More by the day I might add. I'm not trying to push for action, I just want to know you haven't given up on this fight."

Not even an adjustment of her visor.

"Alright, that's the last time I'll ask about it. Understand that I had to say something." Pearl looked back down at the gemstone between her hands, and after another sigh, placed it back up amongst the others. "Lapis is connecting to a Lapis Lazuli on Elysium, Shungite is getting inside Steven's head, you're not saying a word at all. I thought we'd at least have time to be happy about getting Steven back before everything got worse again-"

A dull ringing sound drew her attention upward. Jasper's gemstone was starting to glow in pulses, and definitely vibrating inside the bubble.

"Garnet!"

She grabbed it back down for another close examination. The bubble itself was vibrating in her hands, holding its integrity for the time being. It was still behaviour from a gemstone she had never seen before, and that worried her to no end.

"Garnet, now is not the time for introspection!"

The hum grew louder. More gemstones around the room were starting to glow in the same pattern, vibrating within the bubbles.

"If even one of them breaks in here-"

At that moment, Garnet took the purple tinted bubble off her hands, and to the horror of Pearl, popped it.

"Trust me. Get another ready."

Despite all the frantic thoughts running through her mind, Pearl did as instructed.

Right before Jasper's form began to return, Garnet clamped her gauntlets around the gemstone.

"You don't have to form. Go back to sleep, we'll protect you from Shungite."

A bright orange glow began to seep through her fingers as they strained against the forces pushing out against her grip.

"Go to sleep!"

Her teeth ground, and with one final push, she crushed the forming body enough to force Jasper to poof back into her gemstone again. When bubbled, she was no longer glowing or vibrating.

Pearl noticed that change while handing the next to Garnet, several more left floating in the air beside her. "I don't understand, how is she forcing them to form from inside the bubbles? And why these specific ones?"

Garnet went back to being silent as she proceeded on with the other gems, made a lot quicker once she knew the exact forces required to stop them from reforming. When it was done, there was a large cluster of red bubbled gems above them.

Having looked at each one, Garnet sighed in realization. "They're all Quartzes of varying types. All from the Beta kindergarten."

Pearl's hand went back to clutching at her face. "Either she's baiting us into going back there, or there are secrets Peridot hasn't uncovered yet. Something connected to all of the Betas."

"Probably both. She could have attacked the Alpha Gems, gotten at Amethyst, but I know she's going to be returning any moment now."

Right on cue, to the surprise of no-one, the warp alert went off right before Amethyst arrived from the end of her patrol.

"At least Shungite hasn't completely crippled your future vision. For what it's worth Garnet, I feel incredibly relieved whenever I hear that someone is returning home safely."

Garnet hummed in thought, taking that moment to dematerialize her gauntlets, then made her way to the door. "You're right Pearl. I've done enough searching, its time to act again."

In the meantime, Steven had waited until his breath was calmed enough before drinking water at last, provided to him by Peridot with a sympathising look.

"Jasper was a seagull? That's a new one."

Steven rolled his eyes in a bothered way, taking his time with the water to avoid coughing or causing himself hiccups. When he was done, he set it aside with a faltering exhale. "I just don't know if it really was Jasper asking for help, and that Shungite is doing something to her, or if Shungite just made up the whole thing to get at me. It's impossible to tell with her."

"Yes, I can imagine. Unfortunately, I have been a little pre-occupied with writing my program to take a look through my personal database, but…" She motioned a hand to where her limb enhancers were piled. "You're welcome to give it a go if you would like."

On any other day, Steven would've been excited to the point of dazzling in his eyes at the prospect of getting to play around with the computer screen Peridot had so often used in the past. After yet another unpleasant experience however, the most he could muster was a shrug.

"Alright, I'll do that."

Even Peridot was underwhelmed by his reaction, having intended to cheer him up with that proposal despite her concerns about it. She of course didn't let that get in the way of things.

"Just make sure you don't accidentally switch it to cannon mode and you'll do fine."

After finishing the glass, Steven washed and left it to dry before making his way over to the pile. Peridot picked up the right arm, and after some thought five of the digits lying on the ground. She grumbled while scratching off some marks left behind by coral growth.

"Put your hand inside the receptacle."

Steven twisted it around to look at the opening, and pushed his hand against it. Expectedly, his larger build compared to Peridot's left him with his thumb wedged outside the enhancer itself.

"You said something about being able to adjust the size, right?"

Peridot grumbled more, reaching over to tap a few areas of the enhancer. While there was no indication that she was interacting with anything, the receptacle did open up wide right after, more than enough for him to slip his hand into.

He winced slightly out of nervousness when it clamped back down around his wrist, and the portion containing his hand filled with a strange liquid.

"Now, assuming the neural connection is compatible, you should be able to instruct these digits to form into a computer screen. I would recommend saving the index finger for browsing."

The extra weight hanging from his wrist was strange to handle at first, but once he got the hang of lifting his arm up it became a little more manageable. His face went into concentration mode, focusing on the digits on Peridot's palm, visualizing them taking form as Peridot had done so before.

"Come on… come on…"

His hand began to tremble under the strain of keeping his arm up up for so long. But, so did the digits, very slowly rising up off her palm into the air in front of him.

"You're doing it!"

Steven brought his left hand up to support his right arm, letting the elbow rest on his knee, while remaining concentrated on bringing up the screen. After they wobbled about in the air for several seconds, the green tinted readout finally began to materialize.

"Remember, index finger to navigate. Don't push too hard or the digit will break screen cohesion."

"Alright, not too hard." He chewed his lip as he began moving his finger inside the enhancer, watching the digit at the end move about in sync. Actually getting a feel for how it moved in relation to his hand was trickier than he imagined. Even slight movements were enough to make it whip across the space of the screen itself.

"Now, data file access is done through a mix of thought and eye control. To search for Shungite, you need to look at the reference archive here-" Peridot carefully pointed to one section of the screen. "And keep Shungite in mind, name or image will work. If there's any reference at all to her, the incredibly optimized search engine that far exceeds anything designed by that 'Ting' will find it."

Steven hummed in thought, mostly back to what he had overheard from the other Lapis Lazuli. "The Peridot working for White Diamond mentioned 'Cold Star Carbon' and 'Cold Star Coal'. Maybe they're the official codenames? But which is which, and what's the other?"

Peridot blinked. "You lost me there, but try that anyway I guess."

He stared at the screen harder, watching as it brought up text in Gemspeak alongside various images and graphs, and then dissipated them to fill up with a new slew of files.

"I still can't read the language, what if I miss the file without even noticing?"

"I'm sure I can create a language translation matrix given enough time. For now, I will tell you if-"

The pod sounded its alarm right before Amethyst warped in. Enough of a distraction to break Steven's concentration and drop all five of the digits onto the coffee table.

"Hey guys, miss me?"

While Peridot was grumbling more about untimely interruptions, Steven was rather more calm in the wake of the failure. After repeating the same sequence Peridot had used, he freed his hand from the limb enhancer and set it on the table before drying his hand off. He caught sight of her expression when she finally noticed what had been interrupted.

"Don't feel bad Amethyst. We weren't going to find anything anyway. And I'm not asking Lapis to have another linked dream either."

Garnet and Pearl came back through the temple door before Peridot could grumble even more.

"Gems, listen up. Shungite just tried to break the bubbles of the Beta Quartzes. We don't know how, so we're going there to find out. Peridot, we'll need you on site to locate and access any secret labs she's uncovered since we were last there. Steven, either you or Amethyst need to go keep an eye on Lapis. We clear?"

Steven was up on his feet and walking towards the warp pad before she was even finished. "I'll go to the barn. I don't think I want to go back to the Beta Kindergarten anytime soon."

Garnet nodded, stepping back from the warp pad herself. "Fair enough. You coming then, Amethyst?"

She shrugged from her own spot nearby, but with enough a nod to make herself clear.

"Alright. Remember, we are not to engage Shungite. We observe, and we wait for her to leave before investigating. If she isn't there, we keep our eyes open. Everyone set?"

Steven nodded right before warping away to the barn.

In that time, Pearl brought her phone out. "I'd better let Connie know what's happening. Shame we can't move the warp pads or build new ones anymore."

"She can manage on a little travel time. And we don't want Shungite having a way to warp right into her backyard."

Pearl stopped midway through the text to sigh at her own ineptitude. "Of course, what was I thinking? I'll just stick to doing what I do best; doing, not thinking."

"Don't discourage yourself Pearl. All ideas need to be thought out to some degree before they're worth bringing up."

Once the text was sent off, she put her phone back away and straightened up to step onto the warp pad. "You're right of course. Amethyst, Peridot, let's go."

* * *

"Marh marhma marh mah."

"I hear ya Yellowtail. You take care now, alright?"

"Mah marh!"

And with that, Yellowtail drove out from the car wash, leaving Greg standing by the controls to sigh to himself.

"Some days, I wonder what it would've been like…"

He turned around to lock down the controls again, leaving the machines time to drip dry.

"If Steven ended up leading a more normal life…"

Once the controls were locked, he turned back again.

"Like Sour Cream or…"

Standing in the middle of the road that led down to the water tower, was a dark grey Gem about the size of Garnet. Her hair was shaped into a black pyramid, there were fins on her shoulders, and she wore a skirt and tights.

Greg fumbled for the nearby hose and held it out in front of him defensively. "I'm legally obligated to warn you that I am armed while I ask you to leave the premises before I take further action! Please!"

Shungite tilted her head to one side. "Is it a human custom to greet strangers with a weapon and declaration of reluctant hostile intent?"

Her question made Greg falter a little, to the point of lowering the hose trigger down in a spot of disappointment. "Well, no. This isn't even a weapon, unless you're hydrophobic or allergenic. Or a catfinger." He lifted it back up towards her when he remembered exactly why he was concerned. "In any case, you might not be several feet tall, but you're a spitting image of the Gem who attacked my son and the Crystal Gems. I take any harm donw to my son seriously, and for that reason I can't say you're welcome here. Sorry."

A sigh from Shungite came as she straightened her head back up, resting her hands behind her back. "Steven informed me that a Ruby had been cracked as a result of the incident. I came to apologize. While I do not take kindly to being viciously attacked out of nowhere, I had absolutely no intention of causing permanent damage. A demonstration and a warning was all I had intended, nothing more."

Greg brought the hose up higher. "And scaring Lapis in her dream? Trying to corrupt her?"

"A simple test. The corruption in her gemstone would not have lasted for more than a minute of human time. She caused far more damage to my form at the Beta Kindergarten I might add."

The hose went down yet again, Greg scratching around his ear. Given all that had been said and described to him, could he really call the Gems for help before Shungite stopped him?

"Fine, why are you here, and how are you 'normal' sized all of a sudden?"

He thought he saw a twinge of a smile on Shungite's very angular face.

"You are an inquisitive human, Gareg. I came to ask questions, to learn, and I will answer some of yours as I see fit in return for assistance in my pursuit of understanding."

"Gareg?"

That took his mind immediately back to Pink Diamond's zoo. Shungite had obviously been there since his capture, and perhaps even after the escape. And yet, the fact remained she had yet to snatch anyone away at all, even after a week and a half on Earth. Aquamarine had several within a matter of days.

"You are the human Gareg, correct?" She pulled out her datapad and began glancing over it, holding the integrated scanner up to the human before her. "Found and obtained by Blue Diamond, donated to the Pink Diamond Memorial Observatory, declared missing after survey by Holly Blue Agate Facet-10P3, Cut-G14." Her expression changed slightly as she read further down. "Designated 'gender' as Variation 2, rejected choosening with J-10, a Variation 1 human. Rumoured connection with Rose Quartz-human hybrid named 'Steven', and consequently identified as primary human subject for observation." She lowered the pad and looked back at him. "Correct?"

Greg blushed, more out of having so much, and yet so little about him read out in such a completely matter-of-fact tone.

"Well, it's just 'Greg' for starters. And if you really are here to ask questions and not hurt people or the Gems…"

"That is my secondary objective, yes. I had intended to put this on hold, however I was instructed by White…" She glanced away momentarily, then back after putting her hands up into the customary Diamond form, almost rolling her eyes at having to do so out of custom. " _My_ Diamond to proceed with this instead, on the condition that you and the other humans of this world remained non-hostile."

After scratching at his head again, Greg sighed and put the hose away. "You know, the Gems aren't far away, and I don't think they'll take kindly to you walking around here. They protect this city a lot after all."

"The Gems are currently at the Beta Kindergarten. A simple resonance pulse has drawn their attention through the gemstones grown there originally, they will explore the place and eventually conclude there is nothing to be found before returning. So long as I am allowed to leave this city without provocation there will be no further hostility from myself."

Greg dragged his fingers through his hair, breathing out while weighing the whole prospect up. There was a lingering feeling that she wasn't being all too honest with him, but on the other hand, she had apparently made herself much smaller to help defuse the tension of staring up at a giant woman. And she had yet to bring out that flute.

"Alright. I suppose we can walk and talk for a while. If you really do want to learn more about humans, the best way is to meet all the diverse people of this city. And keep in mind, this is only a tiny fraction of what Earth has to offer."

"I have already noticed that those on other continents have languages of their own, many of which I could not decipher."

"Oh boy… This is going to take a while…"

He sound found himself walking down the pathway alongside her, having crossed the street first to be a little closer to nearby houses, and anyone who happened to glance outside and see a dark grey woman walking by.

"Okay, I guess if we're gonna take it in turns, I'd really like to know how you changed your size, including your gemstone. I thought that was the one part of Gems that couldn't be altered."

"The position cannot be altered, however there is still a degree of control. I simply condensed the physical size of the gemstone on a temporary basis, the mass remains constant, and my form adjusted accordingly. Fusion has the opposite effect, in that gemstones will gain size with a constant mass maintained."

"Aaand… That actually wasn't too hard to follow. Huh."

Shungite's very faint smirk appeared again. "I must be very concise in reports and documentation of learned facts. I would ask the same where possible."

Greg nodded quietly.

"Good. In that case, my first question relates to this 'gender' that is present in all human subjects studied to date. We have noticed a strong dominance of Variation 1 and Variation 2, as well as other Variations that have been numbered according to frequency. The purpose of 1 and 2 is understood, the others less so."

At that, Greg's face went a bright red. There was having 'the talk' with Steven when he reached the right age, and there was 'the talk' with a Homeworld Gem getting very deep into that realm.

"Well, I suppose, uh, Variation 1 and 2 would be considered the baseline for most life on Earth, including humans. We call them 'female' and 'male'. There are some species that are only female, a type of frog if high school biology didn't fail me, and some others like slugs that are 'both' in a sense. It's how we reproduce. Since, well, since we don't exactly grow out of the ground after giant drills drop stuff into it."

Shungite noted all that down on her datapad with a soft hum. "This much has been observed. Please, continue."

Greg's hand went up to the side of his face and slowly dragged down. "I mean, I'm not really the person to ask about that sort of stuff. Growing a new person, well, a lot of things can happen, and most of the time they can be bad for that person." He let out a long sigh, stopping to try and compose himself, reaffirm some of his confidence and ideals. "I know how Homeworld feels about 'defective' Gems, and I don't like the idea that they'd assume humans who don't completely match Variation 1 or Variation 2 are defective as well. Sometimes a heart being in the wrong place can be life threatening, but things like that can be fixed! And some things in other places don't even need to be fixed! They're what makes that person unique!"

Shungite stared at him with a blank look, before going back to her browsing. "As you say, that is how Homeworld feels about Gems who do not keep to the expected standard of their respective design. Humans are yet to be subject to Homeworld's expectations, understanding these intricacies is a necessary step in ensuring that those expectations are accurate."

A nervous swallow went down for Greg, though he did his best to cover it up. It was entirely possible she had just let slip that plans for Earth had changed from letting the Cluster destroy it, and he needed to be around to tell the Crystal Gems that revelation.

"Well, I don't know what else to say. I mean, you Gems have had five thousand years to study humans in that environment you built for them! What else is there to learn about us?"

"How humanity has chosen to handle deviations from the baseline for one." She switched her datapad back to some files she had been given from the zoo. "There has been a catalogued total of 972,803 Variations of the human species since the zoo was first populated. Many of these occurred in the generations spawned from the first three groups of humans, as it was not until the sixth group that a discovered breakdown of human genetics was finally prevented from occurring altogether."

Far from the bright red of nervousness, Greg's face had gone pale in realization at what she meant. "Generations…?"

"Many studies were conducted on the remains before disposal of the failed batches. Approximately twenty eight million subjects before the sixth group was gathered if these reports are accurate."

Greg laughed in a mortified way, his brain having virtually shut down at the horrific manner in which Shungite dismissed such a waste of life without even a flicker of concern. A truly undeniable reminder that humans were of virtually no worth to Homeworld Gems beyond sheer curiosity, and for their own amusement.

He finally recomposed himself after letting it slide from his mind, clapping his hands together and making a brisk walk down the path again. "You know what, forget I asked about the zoo! Why don't you meet some Beach City residents, and you can be on your way with a good variety of statements about all kinds of Earth subjects, okay?"

Shungite took note of his reactions throughout, in particular the drop in mood, before giving a completely nonchalant shrug. "Very well. In the meantime, could you help identify the supposed Variations known as 'my dad', 'Connie', 'Lars', 'Sadie', 'Mailman' and 'Onion I think'? I've read reports that a clearly incompetent Aquamarine failed to retrieve suitable example subjects on her mission here, and…" She paused to make the Diamond sign again, with another eyeroll. "My Diamond wishes for me to observe rather than extract them, rest assured Greg of Earth."

There was too much of an urgency to get her enough information and make her leave for Greg to try explaining things properly. "Sure! Sure! You won't find a 'Lars' around here anymore, but there's plenty more to talk to! Don't you worry!"

It wasn't long after that they arrived at the turn onto the boardwalk, Greg a few steps ahead and plastering a false smile all over his face. As soon as he caught sight of another, he discreetly gestured to Shungite and stopped outside the t-shirt shop.

"Hey hey, Fryman! You got time to answer a few questions for my 'friend' here?"

Fryman tipped his visor up a bit, extending his hand out for Greg to take, nearly having it yanked off as a result, and consequently finding himself at a loss for words.

"Uh, sure?"

"Great! I'll be right here if you need me. Just get right to the point, lay it all out, and she'll move on!"

The whole time, Greg was hoping that his not-so-subtle hinting was getting through to Fryman until Shungite stepped past him, holding up her datapad to scan him as well.

"Fryman. Is this another Variation?"

"Variation? What in tarnation are you talking about? And what's with the hat?"

"Hat?"

"That big black piece! Is it Race Day where you're from or something?"

Somewhere in the middle of that, Greg's hand went to his face.

It took a few moments for Shungite to conclude that he was in fact referring to her hair. "This is not a hat, it is an extended representation of my gemstone in the form of millions of synthesised strands of hard light formed and firmed to exacting measurements."

Fryman stared at her blankly, then looked to Greg. "Universe, what does she mean by 'Variation'? I'm still trying to figure that one out."

His voice was muffled by his hand still pressed over half his mouth. "She thinks Fryman is a gender. Just roll with it."

"What? Has Ronaldo been chatting you up? Suddenly everything is a new gender, and everything is connected in some big elaborate scheme!" He turned back to Shungite at last. "Fryman is my name, and I'm proud to be a man! You hear me? Man! M A N!"

Shungite blinked again. "I see." On her pad, she jotted down 'New Variation; 'man'.

"Okay, you've talked with Fryman, onto the next human! I'll see you around."

Fryman folded his arms with a gruff while Greg brought back his smile and moved on, thankful to see Shungite accompanying him again.

"You have become quite urgent all of a sudden, Greg. Does this city have an organized schedule of its own?"

The familiar head scratching of nervousness made its return. "No, no I'm just worried one of the Gems will get back soon. And I'm just having oh so much fun showing you around and helping you learn about Earth, I'd hate for it to be interrupted early!"

It was by some good fortune that his blatant sarcasm of desperation flew over her head altogether.

They didn't get far before a commotion drew their attention to Fish Stew Pizza.

"Jenny! I tell you for the last time! Don't go dilly-dallying off when your sister needs help!"

Jenny stepped out from the shop in a way that made it look as if she were sinking into the boardwalk itself, accompanied by an entirely fitting groan.

"Papa, it's just one afternoon! Come oooonnn!"

"No! No more excuses!"

While the argument continued, Shungite leaned over towards Greg slightly. "Which Variation is this? And what about the one inside?"

"That's Jenny, and Kofi inside is her dad." He winced at the thought of her jotting down 'her dad' as yet another variation. "Look, Shungite, if you're really going to make a report, you need to understand the concept of actual names. I'm Greg, but I'm also a man, a male. There's a lot of words that mean the same thing. And a lot of the 'Variations' you think exist are just jobs! It's like how Peridot is a 'Kindergartener'. That's not her gender, it's what she does. Or used to do."

Shungite stared at him for a long moment, drawing his gaze into her expressionless eyes, partially hidden by the shade created by her hair. When she eventually blinked and nodded, it startled him a little.

"That… explains a lot. So, exactly what role does a human employed as an 'Onion I think' perform?"

Once again, his hand went to his face.

Not knowing how to take that reaction, Shungite looked back to the pizza place. A new human had emerged, one who looked nearly identical to 'Jenny'.

"Who is that?"

Greg peeked through his fingers. "That's Kiki. She's Jenny's sister."

"Sister…" Shungite's eyes lowered to her datapad, settling into another long stare. "Sister…"

"Jen, who's this weird Gem woman staring at us?"

"Iunno, she's hanging out with Greg though so I guess she's cool. Hey Mr Universe! Is Steven doing okay?"

His hand came away from his face long enough to wave to the twins. "Yeah, he's fine now. Thanks for asking."

The momentary distraction meant he didn't notice Shungite moving on without him. While he was at first terrified of what she was about to do, it was soon accompanied by the possibility that she was in fact ready to leave at last, and he could finally warn the Gems without having to worry about anyone getting hurt in his absence.

"You leaving so soon? You didn't even get to ask Jenny or Kiki any questions!"

The one ray of hope was dashed when Ronaldo appeared from the fry shop, and very nearly bumped into Shungite.

His reaction upon seeing her in full was nothing short of awe.

"Oh man! The forces of nature really have come to speak with us!"

Shungite remained blank as ever as Ronaldo dropped to his knees and began moving his torso up and down, humming some sort of chant she couldn't make sense of. Once again, she looked to Greg for an explanation.

"Is this another ritual of greeting?"

"I have no idea at this point. Only Ronaldo knows what's going on inside his head."

Ronaldo stood back up abruptly when he caught sight of Shungite's datapad, gasping at the elegantly simple design in black.

"I knew it! You're here to unlock the secrets of the snakepeople! The forces of nature will save us at last!"

"Snakepeople? Are these a variation of humans?"

"Shungite, I thought we-"

"What? No! Of course not! Don't you know anything?" He whipped out his own tablet and held it up to her. "I was all wrong about the Great Diamond Authority! It's just a cover story, meant to hide the real threat! I was right all along, the snakepeople want to eat us all!"

Shungite gasped a little in horror. "You mean, these snakepeople are impersonating one of the Diamonds? Tell me more! Quick! I must get this information to Homeworld immediately!"

Greg threw up his hands in despair, not knowing if Shungite was about to swat Ronaldo, and just playing along, or genuinely believed his crazy theory.

"The snakepeople have infiltrated Earth right to the top. They own all the big corporations, food, water, news, cartoon networks! They all want to destroy the freedoms and joys of Earth for their own gains, so we all end up wallowing in despair and can't put up a resistance when they come to feed!"

Shungite was rapidly noting all of it down. "And what do they have planned after? How do they plan to overthrow the Diamonds."

"What? I already told you, the Diamonds are just a cover story! There's nothing to overthrow, they're already in control! You're a force of nature, don't you know this?"

She looked over at Greg, shaking his head with the sort of smile that appeared on a man who had given up on everything, then back at Ronaldo. "It seems I am not privy to nearly as much information as I first assumed. This information will be put to good use, I assure you, Wise Man of Earth."

Ronaldo brought his hands together and bowed anyway. "It is an honour to enlighten a force of nature then. Go, protect the Earth! We believe in you!"

Shungite compressed her datapad back down and hid it away around her shoulder, looking back to Greg. "It seems I learned far more than I had originally thought was possible from this trip. Another time, Greg of Earth."

And with that, she leapt off into the far horizon with a single bound.

Greg spent all of a second watching her depart before turning right around and bolting down the boardwalk, then onto the beach leading to the temple, breathing heavily all the way.

* * *

Once again, the pod alert signalled the arrival of the Crystal Gems back in the temple, midway through a conversation.

"-and as Steven probably told you, humans are so obsessed with their audio-visual entertainment that they will pour incredible amounts of resources into producing said entertainment. And that all takes time Peridot."

"I get that Pearl, but surely there's a way to get some sort of advance on the next season? I can't think of anything else to cheer Lapis up!"

"It's good that you're wanting to help her, but unfortunately, not everything can be solved by a few episodes of a television series."

"Even so-"

The door burst open yet again, this time to Greg as he nearly collapsed to the floor, sweating profusely and looking redder than ever.

"Guys… You won't believe… what I've just… been through…"

* * *

" _Incoming message for you, my Diamond. An addendum to a Cold Star Coal report._ "

White Diamond looked up to the viewscreen of Elysium's Diamond sanctuary. "Put it through Pearl."

The video came up shortly after, displaying Shungite at her now-established hideout.

" _First interaction with the human residents of the city next to the renegade temple has been a success. I have learned much from the human subject 'Greg', corrected from our previous assumption of 'Gareg'. He enlightened me to the fact that some of the listed 'variations' provided by Peridot Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG are in fact 'occupations'. I will continue my efforts to discern more about the human culture as per your request._

 _I must also inform you of a grave discovery. It seems that there is a previously unknown race at work beyond our sight, known as snakepeople. A human informed me that they may even be working at the highest levels of your Great Authority. How he came to hold this knowledge I have yet to uncover, but until I learn more I urge great caution. End report._ "

After it closed, White Diamond hummed to herself, then slowly waved her hand over a nearby control panel.

"Pearl, send a reply message, informing her to continue her studies of humans, and remain wary of these 'snakepeople'. And also inform her that the data recovery module she requested will be delivered shortly."

" _Yes my Diamond._ "

"And Pearl, inform the lab to commence work on Project Cold Star Shale at the turn of the next cycle. Carbon has been experimented on long enough. She deserves a rest."

"I _will relay both messages promptly._ "

"Very good. That will be all."

* * *

Not long after the message had been sent, Shungite settled into a relaxed pose and closed her eyes.

After a few moments, she opened them again to the voidscape of dreams. The ground was a burnt orange, rocks and ridges rose up in the distance. Her focus was the Gem lying crumpled on the ground ahead of her.

"Stop. Please…"

"You know I cannot stop, not until I've learned all I need to."

Jasper threw her head up again, very nearly spitting at Shungite in pain and rage.

"I served Homeworld unwaveringly from the nanosecond I emerged! I deserve better than this!"

Shungite rolled her eyes, and in a wicked moment while bringing out her flute, began to smirk.

"You're the exception to a failure, nothing more. I will find more corrupted Gems. And soon enough, I will come for your physical form as well."

The flute came to her widened lips. The note played.

Jasper screamed in agony as she writhed again, the spikes protruding from her corrupted form scraping the ground with every motion she made.

The black screen closed around Shungite in an ellipse, then popped altogether.


	4. Lapis 2: Double Your Lapis in Five Steps

"I'll be with you in a minute!"

Steven glanced over at the doorway to the back room. Sadie was apparently busy there.

"It's okay! Just came to see how you're doing!"

"Steven?" Not long after, Sadie came back around with a fresh box of donuts to slide into one of the displays. "You're back! I heard you got out of the hospital a few days ago, sorry I couldn't come visit."

"It's okay. I know you're still busy with the place. That's why I'm here."

He made his way over to the counter, resting his arms against it to place his chin down on the back of his hands, staring at the surface while he did so. "Dad told me about Shungite's visit here. It's been hard trying not to think about what she'll do next, and knowing that she actually knows where everyone lives isn't helping."

Sadie put on her best brave face after standing up from the display, stepping over to the counter space. "I heard about that. And I know, you're going to say 'Just because she didn't snatch anyone doesn't mean she's not any worse than Aquamarine', so I've said it for you instead. Fact is, we've yet to see her actually be worse. She hasn't crashed a spaceship, kidnapped people, stolen the ocean, destroyed the arcade, or Funland for that matter, spawned a race of sapient watermelons, or uh…"

She lost track of how many fingers she had been using to count the various 'events' of the town upon seeing that it was not making Steven feel any better despite her intent. "Not that anyone 'blames' you for creating a race of sapient watermelons, I think it's rather amazing really."

"I'd go check on them more, but the robonoids still aren't ready to fix the warp pad yet."

Sadie reached a hand across to prod his arm when he sank further down. "I'll come with you to visit them when it is ready then, alright?" When that finally got him to look up, she smiled a little, then abruptly bounced. "Ooh, right. I did get around to talking with Greg about you working here on casual shifts, and he agreed to work that out. Then Lion appeared and took him away, and then hours later we heard about the incident. So, I kinda forgot until now."

Steven made a soft sigh. His chin was slowly propped up onto one palm. "It's okay Sadie. I haven't been thinking about it much anyway. Now it just feels like I'm gonna end up running out on shifts all the time to go deal with a new problem, and that'd be even worse for you to manage. I'm not so sure anymore."

"Well, I can understand that. Just keep thinking it over, I'll probably need a full time helper anyway, so don't feel like all the pressure is on you."

"I know. I'm not the only one who can help out here at the Big Donut, I'm not the only one who has to fight Shungite, it's just hard to remember that sometimes." He sighed again, pulling his hands off the counter altogether. "Now I'm worried some new disaster is going to happen as soon as I go out onto the boardwalk. It's happened twice in two weeks now!"

"Then don't go onto the boardwalk? I guess that means not visiting the Pizzas or the Frymans or the Arcade, but there's other places to go, right?"

The ground beneath them began to shake for a few seconds. Both Sadie and Steven rushed for the doorway as a basic precaution, though it was over by the time they got there.

"Guess the disaster beat you to the boardwalk! I don't think Beach City gets earthquakes!"

A second rumble rocked the building for a few seconds. When the third came and went without any major incident, Steven drew in a breath and began making his way over to the front doors.

"I know I shouldn't be going near glass panes right now, but I have no choice. There's only one thing I know of that causes earthquakes strong enough to be felt in Beach City. And I bet Shungite has something to do with it."

He pushed the doors open in a determined stride.

"I won't let her reactivate the Cluster! I won't-"

All he could do was gasp.

Out in the ocean was a towering pillar of water. Two glamorous wings extended out from near the top, which itself had formed into the vague shape of a head.

"The dream…"

"Another force of nature is here!"

He whipped his head over to the boardwalk where several of Beach City's residents had gathered, Ronaldo ahead of them all.

"Oh no…"

"Glorious force of nature, we humbly ask you to not steal our ocean this time! Please, protect us from the snakepeople!"

Steven frowned on his hurry over to Ronaldo. Before he could get there, Mayor Dewey had stepped out from the crowd.

"Young Fryman, what do we do? We can't lose the ocean again!"

Ronaldo closed his eyes and tilted his head down, placing a hand over his heart.

"We must beseech her to be benevolent, good Mayor of this City that may or may not be a snakeperson working against his own people."

And with that, he got down on his knees to perform the same motions that he had done for Shungite.

Mayor Dewey was quick on the mark, bringing up a megaphone. "Everyone! However strange this is, I must ask you all to go along with this! We can't lose the ocean again!"

After some nervous chattering, everyone in the crowd followed Ronaldo's example, including Dewey himself, all bowing repeatedly to the pillar of water that was drawing closer to them.

"What is going on? Why aren't any of you running? That's not Lapis Lazuli, she's back at the barn!"

"Laaaaapissssss Laaaaazuuuuuuli."

He whipped around and defiantly pointed at the pillar. "I don't know who you are, but I won't let you hurt anyone! And I won't let you take the ocean either! The Crystal Gems will stop you!"

The pillar tilted its head in confusion. "Crystal Gems?"

By then, Sadie had left the Big Donut, and after a spot of confusion at the crowd, raced over to Steven's aid. "Steven! What's going on?"

"Steeeeevaaaaaan!"

Steven took hold of one of her arms to try and reassure himself if anything. "I don't know. I can't keep up with all these crises. I need Lapis' help."

A loud splash from the sea drew his attention back to the pillar. It was now within metres of the boardwalk.

"Steven? The Crystal Gems? Lapis Lazuli?"

Once again, he pointed at the pillar. "I'm Steven Universe, and I protect Beach City from any Homeworld Gem that wants to harm my friends! I am a Crystal Gem!"

The pillar tilted its head again, glinting in the sunlight. And then, to his great surprise, formed a smile.

"So am I."

In a terrific splash, the pillar disintegrated into a shower of seawater. The spray went all over the boardwalk, and the mesmerized crowd, concealing the landing of the Gem as she left the safety of her watery disguise at last.

Steven's eyes were transfixed when she slowly rose up. She was bright blue, almost identical in shade to Lapis herself. Sandals with many straps covered her feet for one, and her skirt was much longer, tied at the waist by a thick cord. A big, dark blue star adorned her stomach region, and he soon realized it was in fact a long dress she was wearing from how her fingertip length sleeves matched the rest.

Her face was framed by a headband that held back her mess of hair, gliding down around her head but curving back out at the tips. On her neck rested the gemstone, graded in a faint blue to a deeper shade at the point on the underside, reverse to that of Lapis and Aquamarine.

When their eyes met, she cracked a killer smirk.

"Hey Steven, nice to meet ya. I'm Lapis Lazuli."

For all of his apprehensions until that moment, never had he been so completely taken by the sight of a new Gem. More specifically, her voice.

"Oh my gosh! You have an Ozzland accent!"

Lapis Lazuli's grin went away immediately, her head tilting to the side again. "Come again? What's 'Ozzland'?"

"It's this amazing place with gangurrus and walabis and gulas and meat pies! And people who say 'g'day mate' that sound just like you!"

The Gem glanced around awkwardly, still holding that faltering smirk. "I have no idea what any of that means." She leaned down on one knee to look at him properly when he seemed to calm down. "I do know what the Crystal Gems are, but I've yet to meet a 'Steven' Gem. When did they recruit you?"

For the first time in a long while, Steven was too overcome with child's joy to think of much else. "It's a real long story. But there's other Gems I want you to meet first!"

"Uh, okay? Lead the way then?"

She shared glances with Sadie, who looked back at her in utter confusion, before finding herself pacing after Steven while he took her by the hand onto the beach front.

"When I saw you in the dream, I was scared you were just something Shungite conjured up. I didn't think you were actually a Crystal Gem all along!"

Lapis Lazuli nodded rather vaguely while she nearly had to skip along behind him, feeling hot sand kicking up all around her legs that reminded her of sensations she had long forgotten.

"Well, I really am. But I've not heard of a 'Shungite' either. Have I really been gone that long?"

Steven didn't answer. By then they were reaching the rise leading up to the beach house. He thundered up the steps and slowed just enough to stop at the door and open it a little more calmly before bursting in.

"Guys! Guys! Guys!"

Peridot groaned. "Great, what is it this time?"

Pearl was quickly out of the temple, followed after by Garnet. "Steven, I'm assuming this has something to do with the tremors we-"

She caught sight of the Gem following in behind him at the same time the others did. Unlike all of them however, she recognized a very old friend.

"Oh… Oh my goodness… Lapis?"

Lapis Lazuli squinted for a few moments. "Pearl? Pearl!"

The two Gems practically bounded across the room into each other's arms, Lapis Lazuli lifting Pearl and twirling on the spot before setting her down.

"You've changed so much!"

"You haven't at all! Where have you been all this time? How'd you escape the Corrupting Light?"

Yet again, the smile was wiped off Lapis Lazuli's face. Her hand slowly went to her neck, brushing over her Gem in a tense moment. "So that's what that strange hum was…"

Garnet stepped in at that moment, extending her hand out to the new arrival. "I don't believe we've met. Garnet."

Lapis Lazuli looked at the hand extended, and lifted her own to take it. "No, I'm pretty sure I'd recognize a striking Gem like…" Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a gemstone on the other palm. "Ahem, a fusion like you, Garnet."'

That made Garnet smile. "Perceptive."

"Yes, I've got a good eye for details…" Lapis Lazuli's hand slipped away as she took a step back for breath at last, looking at all the Gems around her. "I see the humans are still worshipping us Gems. There was a whole group out there bowing down to me. Haven't been able to stamp out that little flaw I take it?"

Pearl's face went to complete confusion. "What? No, if anything many humans have forgotten about what we did for the planet altogether."

"Pearl, she's talking about Ronaldo and Mayor Dewey mostly."

"That explains it."

Peridot barged into the gathering at that point. "Can someone please explain what's going on? We already have one Lapis Lazuli, and I'm quite happy with her!"

Lapis Lazuli glanced down at Peridot with a renewed grin. "Yeah, I sensed another one a couple of times now. Guess she's in for quite the surprise, always wanted to see more Lapis Lazulis in the Crystal Gems."

At that moment, Amethyst wandered out from temple door. She took one look at the gathering, the new Gem in particular, rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Great, another Crystal Gem I've yet to hear about. Have you been kept bubbled in some secret spot because of a secret feud with Rose Quartz too and now you're here to get revenge on Steven instead?"

By that point, Lapis Lazuli was too confused to even ask the simplest of questions.

Pearl was quick on hand again. "There's an awful lot to catch you up on Lapis. A lot has changed since you vanished. And as wonderful as it would be for you to meet our resident Lapis Lazuli, I think that needs to wait until after."

With another glance around, Lapis Lazuli shrugged. "Go ahead. Not like I can't make any less sense of all this anyway, what with a 'Steven', a short Amethyst and a fusion hanging out with you. I'm really out of the loop on this one."

After guiding her to the lounge, waiting for her and the others to sit back down, Peridot included, Pearl clasped her fingers together.

"Well, you'll have to fill me in on some of the details later from your perspective, but in short, since you were last seen…"

* * *

What followed ended up being a long winded explanation that took several hours. Peridot had packed up and moved to the bathroom just minutes into it, while Steven had to take a few breaks in the duration.

Lapis Lazuli was quiet the whole time, listening to each of the three Gems as they took turns explaining one event or another. The last hour alone was spent on more recent events, from the original capture of Centipeetle to Shungite's attack at the Beta Kindergarten, yet another Homeworld development that had also come after her time as it turned out.

Night had fallen by the time she was caught up, and a rumbling storm had rolled in shortly after. She obviously needed time to process it all, and thus it was outside, leaning on the railing where she was eventually found by Steven.

He retrieved an umbrella for himself, noting that Lapis Lazuli had been standing there long enough to become soaked. Even the bounce in her hair had flattened out at last.

"You okay? Amethyst wasn't trying to be rude back there, she's just been hurt by other Gems a lot."

Lapis Lazuli turned her head when he reached the railing, sighing but smiling. "Not surprised. You need a tough skin to be part of the Crystal Gems, and that means getting hurt a lot until you harden. Just the way of rebellions I guess."

She cast her gaze out across the dark grey horizon, at least to where the rainfall grew thick enough to obscure it anyway. It looked so familiar, and yet everything just out of view was completely different from how she remembered it.

"I actually forgot what it was like to stand in the rain, to feel sand around my feet, to hold other Gems in my arms. What it's like to be surrounded by air instead of sand and rock."

Steven lifted the umbrella higher to cover her as well. When she looked up at it, but didn't object, he rested the handle on the railing between them. "That's how you escaped the corruption then? Without having to be bubbled?"

"I guess." She sighed again, closing her eyes for a long moment. The water on her body began to drain away altogether, pooling around her feet as rivulets ran down her legs before slipping away to the ground below altogether. Dry as Steven himself.

"Barely a hundred years into the war, I got knocked out over the ocean. When I tried to reform, there was so much weight and mass bearing down on me. Not just the sand I sank into, but the water above it, keeping it all compressed. Must've been enough matter to be a bubble of its own after nine hundred years, I definitely didn't have help."

Her gaze dipped down to the beach below, turned a darker colour still by the rainwater having soaked into it as well. "I can't believe it's been so long, that I missed so much. I felt a hum at one point, then nothing for a long while. Then I felt a lot of the pressure going away, enough to form a hand and start digging myself out, only to have that pressure return and undo what little progress I made."

"That's why you wanted our Lapis to take away the ocean."

She nodded again, glancing over at him. "I had no idea what was going on. I thought if I could reach out again and reform with a Homeworld uniform I could pass off as a lost Gem when they did eventually rescue me. But that didn't happen. Instead, I ended up falling deeper when a lot of tremors went through the area. Thought I was stuck for good until I noticed water dripping through the crack I fell through, so I tried reforming again and wedging that crack back open."

Steven nodded with a hum. "That must've been when the Cluster was starting to wake. I gotta ask, did you cause those tremors right before you appeared, or-?"

"Don't worry, that was me alright. Ever since I managed to link up with your Lapis, I've felt so much stronger. She's really something, learned enough to break my way out from the ocean floor, so I came to where I sensed her, and that's how I ended up at the boardwalk."

He nodded again, looking back to the beachfront himself. "Gosh, there's so much I want to ask you, but I guess you've got other plans in mind. And I wouldn't want to be a bother."

Lapis Lazuli laughed at that, notably without snorts of any kind. "I'm so happy to be back on the surface. And to be honest, it was inspiring to see a human standing up for himself rather than doing that stupid chant the others were on about. Didn't even know you were a Rose Quartz at the time. So please, ask away."

"Okay! Uh…" The umbrella shook a little as he nearly let it go in an attempt to make a thoughtful pose.

Lapis Lazuli was quick to take hold of it for him, giving a small smile when he used his now free hand to do that.

"Well, I guess the best place to start would be how you joined the Crystal Gems. Since Garnet didn't recognize you, that must've been really early on huh?"

After a very slight wince, she nodded. "Well, the reason has been right in front of you all along actually. "Her free hand reached up to her throat, brushing over her gemstone again. "You see Steven, very rarely, a Gem doesn't come out quite right. Homeworld calls them-"

"Off-colours?"

"You've met some? They escaped to Earth as well?"

Steven sighed at the mildly depressing reminder, but kept on. "They're on Homeworld, actually. I got taken there for a while, and came back through Lion's magic mane. I asked the Gems to not tell you about that part just yet, sorry."

Lapis Lazuli tilted her head in the way that had become characteristic for her. "Why? Did you think I was going to get upset?" She took notice of how his head turned and nodded a little. "Because it's upsetting for you. I'm sorry too Steven, I wasn't trying to be insensitive." Her lower lip curled in ever so slightly. "Apparently I have a knack for that."

"It's okay. I'm just wondering why you'd be considered an Off-Colour. You look nearly identical to our Lapis anyway. Well, apart from the hair and the clothes."

Her smirk remained absent as she touched her gemstone yet again. "It's upside-down for one. And, it has a gradient to it. Lapis Lazuli's are meant to be solid colours, or have a four-point star if they've been formed for a very high profile position, I guess that's part of the reason why Rose Quartz made five-point stars her symbol, to spite Homeworld. In any case, gradients are, or were considered defective."

A smile returned to Steven's face. "I think it's really pretty. It makes you unique."

She felt her lips twitch into a hint of a smile at that, before a more solemn expression took over. "Rose said that about me when we met. The same one you're carrying I mean. What was the word?"

"Mother?"

"Yes, your mother. Though I don't recall her wearing a big white dress, or stuff on her lips when I joined the rebellion. She just modified her Quartz soldier uniform to have a star instead of a diamond, and most of us followed suit."

Steven recalled seeing Lapis Lazuli glancing at the picture over the doorway quite a few times during the evening.

"Well, anyway, rather than disposing of me, my kindergartener told me that if I behaved and did exactly as I was told, she'd look into getting me transferred from Blue Diamond's service to Pink Diamond's new colony as a low grade terraformer. And, I'd get to stay there even after my job was done if I did it well enough."

"And that led to you joining the Crystal Gems?"

"The moment I heard that a Rose Quartz was fighting back, I was flying over to join her growing army. Anything to get away from being harassed by the Aquamarine and Apatite duo supervising me."

"Yeah, Aquamarines can be kinda annoying. Haven't met an Apatite yet though."

Lapis Lazuli gripped the railing fiercely with her free hand at that moment, her gaze hardening as well. "Be so very grateful for that Steven. The threat of shattering is nothing compared to having an Apatite watching your every move, waiting for an opportunity to swoop in and take you away for 'therapy'. That's all you need to know about them."

A chill went down Steven's spine, remembering Blue Diamond's threat about things 'worse than shattering'. And more importantly, White Diamond's mention of her personal Apatite supervising the Cold Star lab Gems.

"I guess me joining the rebellion is why they brought your Lapis along. Based on what you've told me about her, I don't think she was one of the original five that came with the first colony ships, including myself of course. It was a Star Lapis Lazuli leading our group, and she was pretty strict on maintaining exact numbers."

She drummed her fingers on the railing, then finally turned to Steven fully, keeping the umbrella held over them both. "Think I could go meet her tomorrow when it's light again? I know it's gonna be confusing having two Lapis Lazulis that don't go by facets and cuts, but I'm sure you're all smart enough to work something out."

"Eventually, yeah. Nicknames are funny like that. Sometimes they come out of nowhere, or they settle in after spending time with someone. I don't think our Lapis likes being called Bob though, so…"

Lapis Lazuli laughed again. "Bob. Bob Bob Bob. It sounds so simple compared to 'Lapis Lazuli Facet-6T4, Cut-R9'. 'Hey Bob, ready to move the ocean yet? Did ya choke off that river Bob, or are you just happy to see me?'"

Steven laughed a little, more because of how the accent made her 'Bob' voice sound. "That sounds nothing like her at all! And I'm still wondering how you have an 'Ozzland' accent when it hasn't even been around nearly as long as you, but I guess that's just another weird mystery!"

"No kidding. Maybe I'll hop over to visit Ozzland sometime when I have an idea of what to expect." Yet another sigh came, this one more wistful from her improved mood. "I'm sad that I didn't get to do much to help, but then that seems to have made me one of the lucky ones. There's so much I have to go see now."

Her lip curled back in as her gaze went down again. "So few Gems left to go visit."

Steven reached out to hold her hand. "You can always come with me through Lion to visit the Homeworld off-colours. Maybe someday we'll all get to see some of the colonies too."

"I might take you up on visiting Homeworld sometime. Just, not anytime soon."

"I understand. I didn't like it there at all."

A silence between them finally settled in, though for most of it Lapis Lazuli was busy looking over the beach house more.

Another roll of thunder in the distance broke Steven out of the mild trance of staring at her in turn. "Right, uh, I have to go to sleep soon. Everyone in town will probably be asleep as well, so won't be much to look at yet. I guess you could borrow some tapes to watch up in the lighthouse while you wait."

"Tapes?"

"They're recorded video of people playing character roles, for fun. Lapis and Peridot seem to enjoy them a lot anyway."

"I think I'll wait until I can see some with them then. I was actually thinking of checking out the wider area first, stretch my wings and all, see what's changed." She crouched down again, smiling and even leaning in to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. "I'll be back just after sunrise, okay? Thanks for coming out and keeping me company."

She handed the umbrella back to him and stood up, turning around to step into the rain.

Steven took a few steps back himself to give her space, watching as two glistering wings sprouted from her back. They were notably more defined than the ones Lapis used herself.

"See you tomorrow Steven!"

And with that, Lapis Lazuli leapt off the balcony into the air, soon vanishing into the murky clouds above in a way that reminded Steven of all the times Lapis had left in a similar way.

At least this time, he knew she was coming back.

"See ya."

He stood there a little longer before making his way back inside, quickly shaking the umbrella off under cover before wrapping it up and leaving it by the door.

"Did your chat with Lapis Lazuli go well?"

Steven blinked, having not noticed Pearl was still in the kitchen area until she spoke. The lights had been dimmed by then.

"Actually yeah. She told me about why she joined the Crystal Gems, why she's been gone all this time, and then we talked about stuff we do on Earth for a bit, and then she decided to go explore for the night, so I came inside."

Pearl smiled, bringing over a mug of hot chocolate for him. "I'm glad. She might not have been with the Crystal Gems all that long by comparison, but she was certainly a notable member. Getting a Lapis Lazuli to change sides was a big moment. Regardless of how Homeworld perceived her it meant that any grade of Gem could turn."

After nursing the mug for a bit, Steven finally took a small sip. The perfect warmth. "Yeah, she told me about being an off-colour."

"It was inspiring to see a Homeworld Gem reject the stigma placed on her in such an outspoken way." Pearl motioned for him to sit at the couch, following right behind him as they moved over there. "I actually saw her declare her allegiance to the Crystal Gems to Star Lapis Lazuli and the others before running off. Wasn't hard to see why Rose moved her up to a leading role so quickly, she was so determined to not just fight Homeworld, but get more Gems to join our cause. And so I ended up spending time with her discussing battle plans, we became very good friends for that."

"Then she vanished?"

The smile faded as Pearl nodded, by then having sat down and brought an arm to rest around his shoulders. "That was one of the first big wake-up calls to the reality of our cause. At first we assumed she was just running away because she was upset; there had been some arguments between her and some of the other lieutenants about her behaviour I think. Then, we got word that Pink Diamond had launched a massive assault over the Atlantic, and that Lapis Lazuli had been among the Gems who went to fight that battle. A lot of Gems reformed and returned later, but she wasn't among them, so we feared the worst."

Steven took a longer sip, more to give him time to think. "What about her behaviour upset the others? I don't want her turning out to be another Bismuth because there's something mom never apologized for."

"Oh, oh I don't really recall why they were upset by her. Rose wasn't one of them however, rest assured, she respected Lapis Lazuli for being true to her own ideals and sense of self. Some Crystal Gems simply had different reasons for rebelling, and I suppose that led to them butting heads as it were."

"I guess that makes sense. Even the Zircons I met seemed to dislike each other, just for working for different Diamonds." He took a long drink to calm his nerves before asking the inevitable question. "She also told me she was scared of an Apatite supervising her, that they did horrible things if they took you in. Was she exaggerating?"

Pearl visibly winced, the arm around him clenching tightly before she calmed herself again, her eyes narrowing in shame.

"I'm afraid so. They're one of the elite class of Gems, almost always working for the Diamonds alone. How much did she tell you about them?"

"Nothing specific. I get the feeling she didn't want me knowing the details."

"Then she had the right idea. Knowing makes it a lot worse. You don't want to cross paths with them, and I am so glad you didn't run into one on Homeworld."

However bothered he might have been with yet more secrets being held back, at least in that particular case they weren't hiding the subject altogether.

"Alright, I won't ask about them again. I just wanted to be sure.

"Of course Steven." Pearl squeezed his shoulders again, her smile returning. "I really do appreciate you taking the time to talk with her. I'd just end up rambling about the war itself and bring the whole mood down. You're much better at keeping things light."

He shrugged with a smile at the praise offered. "I just hope things go over well with Lapis. Amethyst was beyond happy with getting to meet all the others, but I'm not so sure it'll be the same this time."

Pearl's hand moved up to his head, ruffling his hair gently. "I'd be surprised if she's upset over having one of her own around at last. Maybe it would be a good idea to work out an alternate place for her to live though, just in case"

"Actually, I was thinking of the lighthouse for now. Nice and close, but still with some space to herself. I think I can convince Ronaldo to let her stay, and maybe not call her a 'force of nature' and start chanting more."

"You're welcome to try. Honestly I don't know where that boy gets some of his 'ideas'."

"Well, he knew about the Diamonds?"

Pearl had her blank moment, staring at Steven until an answer came to mind. "He probably read it in a history book at school, and then decided to throw away all that perfectly sound knowledge in favour of his silly theories, only for that knowledge to resurface under the guise of 'inspiration'. I only hope Lapis Lazuli doesn't start buying into his ramblings. Shungite believing him was a stroke of luck, if only for feeding the Diamonds misinformation."

The roll of thunder brought her out of the small rant. While she couldn't see the time from that position, it was dark enough outside to remind her of just how late it had become. "Oh, silly me, I've been keeping you up with my rambling. This is what I meant about getting into war talk."

She stood up and took the empty mug from the table on her way back to the kitchen area. "I'll let you know if anything serious happens, try to get a good night's sleep, alright?"

He yawned and stretched his arms while circling around to climb up and change for bed. "Night Pearl."

"Night Steven."

Some time after the lights went out, and Steven went to sleep, Pearl made her way over to the door, phone in hand.

With the loud patter of rain being an equal problem to Steven overhearing her call, she made the bold move of leaping up to the lighthouse itself, and going inside the front door just enough to hear and be heard clearly.

The moment arrived, and yet she still found herself hesitating at it.

A few taps later, the phone was up by her head.

"Yes, it's me. Sorry about the late hour, a long gone friend just showed up."

Pause.

"Oh, don't worry, she's not the sort at all. I'm just waiting to see how she settles in now that she's back."

Pause.

"Mhm, I'm pretty sure I can make it. That problem of mine seems to have gone away for now, and the others are managing fine without me."

Pause.

"Good. I'll see you then. Take care."

The call ended, phone returning to her side as she wiped her brow.

"You can do this Pearl. You can do it."

* * *

Somewhere in the middle of Steven getting breakfast, Lapis Lazuli landed on the balcony outside, true to her word.

He was quick to set down the milk carton, thankfully before he had actually gone and poured it, making his way over to the door to welcome her back in.

"Hey Lapis. How was your night?"

"It was, uh…" She looked at him, unsure of what to think of his pyjamas while he went back to the kitchen area. "Interesting. I didn't realize just how far humans have come, all the cities I saw."

The cereal bowl rattled briefly as milk was poured through it. Once settled, Steven retrieved a spoon and dunked it in. "Mind if I eat a bit? I'll still be listening."

"Go ahead."

She followed after him at a distance while he started on his cereal. When he sat down at the nearby table, she moved to a spot reasonably close. "Tell me, does Pearl still hate the concept of eating? I'm not fond of it myself, just wondering."

Steven lightly nodded, setting his spoon down briefly before swallowing. "More or less. Amethyst likes it, and I need it, so she's not as bothered by it now I guess."

"I see." While he went back to eating, she took the opportunity to tuck her dress under comfortably, still wanting to make herself look neat. "Right, so, I went south at first, because I remembered a favourite place of mine that I liked to visit, but I guess my bearings are off since I didn't recognize anything for a while and decided to head back. I then went north, and that's where I saw a lot of the big cities. I landed, wandered around a bit, some people waved or gave me strange compliments, then I decided to leave when this one woman tried to grab my hand and kiss me."

"There are still some people who don't know to ask first, sorry to hear that."

Lapis Lazuli laughed again. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not a dainty flower that's going to get offended just because someone acted inappropriately. Flowers can't fight wars you know." She let the silence sink in before her grin widened. "Unless they're roses of course."

While a little concerned at first, Steven found himself smiling at her punchline. Just playful dismissal. "Alright, that was a good one. I think."

"Thought you'd get that one. Anyway, there's not a whole lot else to say, since you already know this area, and me describing it all probably wouldn't be that interesting. And you need to get back to eating."

He took a quick mouthful at that, shrugging.

"Say, that Peridot that ran out last night, the one wearing an updated Homeworld uniform. Will she be annoyed if I go check on her or something? She didn't seem all that happy to have me around."

Steven glanced over at the bathroom. After swallowing down that next mouthful, he shrugged again.

"She's just been hard at work. And, well, getting Lapis to share the barn with her took a lot of convincing. They both like things staying mostly the same in their own little piece of Earth."

"And yet another Gem showing up is about a big a shake-up as they get. Great."

With all that in mind, she left Steven to finish breakfast, making her way around to the door that Peridot had vanished into. She stood there, staring at it, then folded her arms.

"Hey, Peridot, you ready to talk or still busy with that computer thing of yours?"

No answer.

"Alright, I'm coming in. Please don't throw anything, I just wanna chat."

When she opened the door, the sound of rapid tapping became more audible. Fully open, she saw Peridot on a strangely shaped white seat, staring tirelessly at the laptop screen while typing away.

"I am so close to done. What would take weeks for a human has only taken me days. I could do so much with this technology given the right opportunity."

Lapis Lazuli found a spot that she could lean against comfortably. "If you say so. I don't recall Peridot's writing their own code though, usually they'd have a Black Onyx on hand to do it for them, and a regional Obsidian to compile it all."

Peridot finally looked away from the screen, her spaced out expression remaining. "Peridots use limb enhancers now, mostly. We don't get assistants of any kind, nor do we rely on Obsidians to do the hard work. And we are not on Homeworld, so I have no need for my limb enhancers anyway."

She glanced back to her screen for a while, then closed her eyes with a small sigh. The laptop itself she placed on the basin carefully, so that she could stand up and stretch without concern. After a grumble about poorly optimized search engines, again, she turned to Lapis Lazuli properly.

"Before you ask, no, I was not dismissive of you because you are an off-colour. Spending time with Steven and the Crystal Gems has taught me to see past such minor differences. I simply do not know what to make of you, and after an unfortunate incident with no Ruby in particular, I'm a little more wary of newcomers to our group. And yes, I do remember something about you being one of the originals."

"Nice to be remembered at last."

Peridot's eyes narrowed inquisitively.

"Never mind. I get what you mean. Having two Lapis Lazuli makes it so much more complicated for anyone who isn't one of them. Unless your Lapis is fond of third person referencing."

The glare continued a while longer. It ended when Peridot relaxed and extended her hand out to Lapis Lazuli. "It seems you have a penchant for making witty, and possibly even mildly humorous remarks when explaining yourself. This is certainly a welcome change from Steven's cringeworthy puns. I will consider beginning more casual relations with you, such as using a nickname when you come up with one. It's only fair to Lapis given what she's been through."

"Steven's working one out for me, I get the feeling it's something he's does a lot anyway. Though he did also say that nicknames sometimes take time to set." Lapis Lazuli leaned off her spot and took hold of the offered hand, shaking it gently. "Thanks for welcoming me then, Peridot."

"My pleasure."

The sound of approaching footsteps made Lapis Lazuli step aside just as Steven wandered in, apparently having finished breakfast.

"I'll need the room to myself again, sorry Peridot."

"It's no problem Steven. I will finish the program soon enough anyway. Besides, I need to prepare to move back to the barn."

Peridot packed up her laptop yet again, carrying it under one arm and motioning for Lapis Lazuli to follow. "You really don't want to know what humans use this room for."

She glanced at Steven before following her out, pushing the door shut behind her.

"Now, while Pearl may feel she is the lead organizer of the Crystal Gems, as the lead organizer of the Crystal Temps, and not to mention a proficient user of Gem and human tech alike as well as certified kindergartener, I am far better suited to finding and suggesting roles within our group that you can fulfil."

Lapis Lazuli rested one hand against her cheek, the other holding elbow to form a more thoughtful position. "I'm not sure what there is for me to do. You've got a far stronger Lapis to move water about and all that. Unless you're in short supply of situations that require witty comments, the most I can do is provide a little more of what you're already good for."

"That's why I'm going to do the thinking for you. You have to stop thinking in terms of being an off-colour Lapis Lazuli that doesn't have much of an army to lead anymore, and start thinking in Earth terms instead!"

"Earth terms? Why do I get the feeling this is a long tangent ahead?"

"Huh, you sounded like Lapis there for a moment, even with that funny accent." Peridot shrugged it off and began pacing the line between the beach house and the temple rock, hands clasped behind her back. "We'll need to determine what activities you enjoy, and can perform well. Beyond hydrokinesis of course. Once I'm done writing my program, Lapis and I can begin arranging certain tests that will help you explore your alternative talents. It was through such an alternative situation that I discovered ferrokinesis for example."

The sound of rushing water came from the bathroom, interrupting both momentarily.

Lapis Lazuli twisted her lips, now a little skeptical. "Right, maybe Steven had the right idea in letting things settle in. I mean, I've only been back a day now, there's stuff I'd like to check out properly first."

"Well, it'd take time to set up these tests anyway. In the meantime, you're quite welcome to come watch _Camp Pining Hearts_ with us."

"So that's what Steven meant by 'watching tapes'?"

"Probably yes, humans have chosen to store their audio visual media on magnetized strips of plastic film, otherwise referred to as 'tape'. Not to be confused with the many various forms of 'sticky tape', or the restrictive boundary markers known as 'police tape'."

"That's a lot of tape."

"As I said, it's a matter of getting used to Earth terms."

Steven emerged from the bathroom at last, walking by on his way back up to his bed area.

"I just need a minute to change, then we can go."

Yet again, Lapis Lazuli was struck with confusion. "Change?"

"Humans have a compulsion to change their attire daily. It's a physical construct of fabric after all, far harder to keep clean than the hard light constructs we Gems form."

Lapis Lazuli took the explanation about as well as she could, leaning over slightly as Steven vanished behind a slatted door. "I guess that explains it?"

"Oh, by the way Lapis, I think I've got a name worked out. Right before you arrived, I was talking with my friend Sadie. Then I remembered that your gemstone has a gradient, and I guess the two of them in mind made me think of 'Gradie'. That sound good?"

"Gradie…" She reached up to her gemstone, touching it in contemplation. "Gradie. What do you think Peridot?"

"It's completely different from 'Lapis', so that's a good start. But ultimately the decision is up to you."

"Gradie, hm." Her eyes closed in deeper thought, and after several seconds, she opened them with a small smile. "I'll see how it goes Steven. Maybe it'll stick after all."

When Steven re-emerged from behind the door, he was in an identical set of clothes to his usual attire. A quick hop down the stairs to retrieve his sandals, and he was on his way over to the warp pad.

"I'm glad you like it. Starting with what makes you unique as a Gem seemed like the best move."

He waited for them to join him on the warp pad before bringing his arms up. "Anything else before you meet her, Gradie?"

Gradie snickered a little at hearing the name in proper use at last. "I don't think so. Probably spent enough time chatting up here anyway."

"Alright, to the barn we go then!"

The pod sounded its alert as they warped out, leaving the house in silence afterwards.

* * *

" _And I… will always love you…_ "

Lapis was deep into the second book of _The Ring Emperor_ when Pumpkin leapt out of her lap abruptly. Her yapping drowned out the crackling song that was playing from her radio, though she had tuned out the actual words a long while ago.

She also planned to tune out the yapping, it wasn't all that uncommon for random bouts of it, up until Pumpkin leapt back onto her lap with enough force to make the hammock swing.

"Alright, what is it you want me to see?"

"Arf!"

"Why did I even ask…"

This time she followed Pumpkin when she leapt down again and raced off to the curtains at the front of the barn. When she slipped underneath, Lapis heard her panting, something that to any human might have seemed odd for a vegetable to do, even if they had taken the form of a sentient dog.

With a roll of her eyes, Lapis moved the curtain aside to allow herself through. "Pumpkin, if this is just you trying to get me to come outside-"

She stopped short with a gasp of shock.

Peridot and Steven were standing there, along with an entirely new Gem that Pumpkin was running circles around.

"Surprise Lapis! You've got a sister!"

Lapis stood there, mouth hanging a little, just staring at the Lapis Lazuli opposite her. So many key differences between them, and yet they were still the same Gem.

As if being one-upped at first by Navy wasn't bad enough…

"Where did you even come from? How come you've already got a star? What are you even doing here!?"

Gradie blinked at the outburst, then in her own snarky way, raised her hands up to count. "From the bottom of the ocean, because I was a Crystal Gem five and a half thousand years ago, and I wanted to meet a fellow Lapis Lazuli." She waggled the fourth finger on the odd chance there was another impending question. "That cover it all hun?"

Lapis' hands balled into fists, her fringe starting to drift down over her eyes as they closed, trying very hard to keep herself calm. She wanted to move beyond the obvious pre-conceptions and problems that so often plagued her.

"Something the matter? They told me this might be a difficult meeting for you, but I figured a strong Lapis like you wouldn't be…"

Her head lifted back up, eyes now locking onto Gradie's with an intensity that made Pumpkin whimper and run off into the cornfield.

"I wouldn't be what? So torn up inside about another Gem coming into my life? Lost for words because I don't know how to feel about not being the only Lapis Lazuli on this planet anymore after a year of getting used to it?"

Gradie folded her arms, glancing at Steven and Peridot in their growing nervousness. "Wouldn't be making such a big moody fuss over it. I get being more upset over being trapped in a mirror to be used and forgotten as opposed to being buried under a tiny portion of sand in a giant ocean and forgotten, but all the other Gems were excited to meet me. Meanwhile, you're throwing shade my way right off the bat."

Having another of his bad feelings, Steven finally moved in to try and ease the rising tensions. "Guys, uh, 'Lapi', 'Lapises'? Please don't fight already. I'm not sure where you learned that phrase from Gradie, but it's not really helping? And Lapis." He turned to her fully, taking one of her hands between his. "She's only been back a day, and she's wanted to meet you since. Please don't be upset."

"Oh spare me Steven. I can tell she's already far more suited to hanging around humans, she's got a more likeable personality, and I bet she just loves hanging around on Earth because all Crystal Gems are tree huggers, or whatever the term is."

"Actually, I joined to spite Homeworld in general for treating me badly. Mostly my supervising Apatite and her Aquamarine assistant."

Lapis folded her arms, frowning more.

Gradie flicked her head back to get a lock of hair that had come loose of her headband out of the way. "And for the record, a lot of the Crystal Gems back then didn't like my attitude, let alone my personality, and so far the humans I've met either stared at me, made weird comments or tried to kiss me out of nowhere. I'm not some airheaded Ruby out to stab you all in the back."

Peridot made her attempt to intervene as well, mostly sticking closer to Lapis. "Trust me Zuli, I've talked with her, and she's not half bad. What's there to be upset with."

"Oh, now I'm Zuli?" Lapis pulled her hands from the hold both Steven and Peridot had on them. "I suppose I got bumped down from Lapis too."

At that, Gradie rolled her eyes. "Actually, Steven came up with an alternate name for me, so I've chosen to go by Gradie. For your sake I might add. Could try being a little more grateful instead of jumping to conclusions like assuming I'm out to replace you. You know, like a sensible, not-angsty Gem."

Steven turned back around on his heel, now frowning a little himself. "Gradie, this isn't the time to start being mean. I thought we all agreed that we'd take things slow."

After taking a few steps back, Lapis summoned her wings. "I didn't agree to that. Enjoy the barn, Gradie, I need some space for now."

She was gone before any of the others could object, flying off in the direction of Beach City.

When she was out of sight, Gradie put a hand to her face and sighed. "Me and my big fat mouth running off again. Sorry Steven, I didn't think she'd be that difficult about it."

Peridot was first to shrug it off and answer. "It took a while for her to accept me as a roommate, she'll get over it soon, and we'll all be happily watching _Camp Pining Hearts_ again. And the best part is, we've got a new buddy to discuss pairings with!"

A groan came from Steven. "Peridot, I don't think it'll be so easy this time. She was uncomfortable around you for different reasons. We can't just shrug our shoulders and act like it's up to Lapis to 'get over it'. She needs a chance to explain why she's uncomfortable, when she's had time to think."

"And maybe tell her that I'm not even staying here at the barn while you're at it."

Peridot stopped short on her way to the barn itself, turning about. "Wait, you're not?"

"I'm gonna ask Ronaldo if he'll let Gradie live in the lighthouse for a while, until she finds a place of her own."

"Yeah, I didn't wanna make a crowd here. Guess it's a little late for that though."

"Nevertheless…" Peridot stepped onto her levitation plate, using it to get to the utility above where the TV remained. "You're still welcome to watch some episodes with me. I've already deduced an ideal viewing order, we can start there."

Pumpkin came bounding out from the cornfield at that moment, racing over to Gradie and licking at her sandals.

After glancing down at her, her eyes lowered into a more sullen look. "I suppose. I'd offer to go check on Lapis, but chances are I'll say another stupid thing and make it worse."

Steven touched her hand lightly. "I'll go find her. And don't take it personally, it's my fault for not thinking she'd be so unprepared for this. Okay?"

"Okay."

While Steven went off back towards the warp pad, Gradie summoned her wings, and knelt down to lift Pumpkin up into her arms first before making a graceful leap for where Peridot was waiting.

* * *

It was outside the Big Donut, on the street facing wall between the summer tables and the back lot that Lapis eventually landed. She found the warmest spot to sit down in and lean back against the wall, huddling her legs up with both arms wrapped underneath her knees to keep her skirt in place.

So far, it had been one of the few places where she felt able to really let down all her walls outside of the barn itself. No Gems to bother her, just the sound of the ocean, all the waves and the birds and the convertible car driving up towards her.

"Hey, that's one of the Gems, isn't it?"

"She looks upset. Should we just leave her alone?"

"Are you kidding Sour? That girl's in distress, we gotta do something!"

Loose sand crunched against the pink painted brickwork as she rolled her head to the right, looking over at the three humans in the pizza-themed car. The sole young woman was waving to her.

"You okay girl? Need a ride anywhere, someone to talk to? Can't just roll on by while there's a poor girl looking mopey and alone!"

"Yeah man, it's not cool. 'Specially when it's one of the Gems keeping us safe that's in need."

The irony made Lapis smirk just a little. Her gaze still shifted away from them, off into the rich blue sky above. "Somehow, I get the feeling you'd all just not understand, or mock my problems."

Buck adjusted his glasses. "No way man, dismissing stuff like that, it's not healthy."

"Come on, we've got space for another." Jenny reached over her shoulder to open the passenger door directly behind her. "You can tell us all about your problems, we'll listen."

Lapis rolled her eyes. But, after giving it some thought, she began getting up nonetheless. By the time she had made her way over and sat down in the offered seat next to Buck, her apprehension about talking with them had faded.

She could actually make good on her intent to interact with the Beach City humans more.

"Lapis, we get that you're a Gem and all, but would you mind buckling up anyway?"

She tilted her head a little, glancing around until she noticed Buck pointing to the seatbelt. More looking clued her into the location of her own, which she timidly pulled across until it clicked into place.

"Sorry, I've never actually been in a car before."

"It's all good girl. Always a first time, isn't there?"

The car took off at a steady pace after that, rounding the block to head back up the main road. Once she got used to it, the experience was actually rather relaxing for Lapis.

"So, what's been eating you up huh? Did you have a fight with, uh, Peridot is it? I think Steven mentioned that was your roommate one time, right Sour?"

Sour Cream shrugged with a bit of a mumble.

Lapis leaned her head back to sigh into the wind as it flowed over, making her hair dance behind her head.

"I just… There's another Lapis Lazuli that just showed up, a really old Crystal Gem, and rather than giving me some warning or time to prepare, they just brought her right over as a big surprise and acted like I was being moody for not knowing how to react."

Yet again, it was Buck with the concise words to sum up the reaction of the three humans in the car.

"Woah. That's big."

"Exactly! Thank you!" Lapis nearly flailed her arms about in exasperation, making herself settle back down after. "They were acting like I should have been just overly excited to have another Lapis Lazuli around, as if they've already forgotten just what I've been through, and what it took me to get over all of it. And then when I'm getting upset at all these conflicting emotions inside, _she_ calls me angsty!"

"Mhm, that's no good you know. Girl needs her space. And finding out you've got a long lost sister is so big you need all the space you can get! Need to think it out and all, right? People calling others angsty is not helpful at all."

"Yeah, I mean, just finding out I was gonna have a half-brother was a huge deal for me." Sour Cream had half turned in his seat to make better eyes contact with Lapis. "It's so easy to feel like you're suddenly down several notches, and then there's no attention left for you. Chances are things will settle back down again, but it's hard waiting for that to happen, take it from me."

The attention turned to Buck again, who merely shrugged. "Only child, don't have much to add."

Lapis sighed again, this time bringing a hand up to rest her head against. "I'm not sure she even counts as a sister though. She's so, completely different from me. Our gems aren't even the same colour!"

By then, they had driven past the water tower on the road out of Beach City, leaving Jenny with a bit more attention to spare.

"Listen Lapis, take it from me, my own twin sister could be a completely different person for all anyone would know! We are so different, and sure, we argue sometimes, but we still care about each other like sisters should. That doesn't mean you have to take namecalling and social ousting from this other Lapis. You gotta put your foot down and say 'I don't wanna argue, but you giving me no choice when you being mean like that!'"

"Isn't that sorta like what Kiki told you about doing pizza deliveries?"

Jenny looked over at Sour Cream, biting her lip before looking back to the road. "Maybe?"

"I'm not sure if that'll make things better though. They kept telling me all these things they did 'for my sake', only they never bothered to talk about any of those things with me first." Lapis' eyes turned downward at last, fixating on her bare feet. "It's like they've somehow excluded me in the process of trying to keep me included. It doesn't even make sense, but that's how it feels."

There was another pause, during which Lapis retreated deeper into her seat. She nearly jumped in surprise when Buck rested his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't stay quiet about it. Think about it, take a breath, and let it all out to them. They'll understand eventually, but only if you tell them to begin with."

Lapis took that breath, keeping her eyes closed for a long while, both hands clenched up on her lap. After a long, hard think about it all, she let out that breath and opened her eyes.

"Okay. I think I know what I need to say to them."

"That a girl Lapis! Need a lift over to the barn so you can tell them?"

For the first time in a while, Lapis smiled properly. "Nah, I can get back there just fine."

"No problem." Not long after, Jenny pulled over to the side of the road, twisting in her seat at last to look at Lapis. "If you ever need someone to talk to again, we'll be around. You're very welcome with the Cool Kids."

Lapis' smile grew a little wider a she unbuckled and hopped out of the car at last. "Thanks guys, that actually helped a lot. I'll see you around."

Her wings came out yet again, and with a final wave to them, she leapt up into the air and began her flight back to the barn.

"Huh, so she can fly. Guess that's why she don't need a car."

* * *

"What do you mean Patricia is a good match for Percy!? Where did that even come from!?"

Gradie shrugged. "Percy just seems like the sort who needs more tender and caring attention in a relationship, and Patricia is exactly the sort to give that kind of attention, while also drawing out his better traits that will ultimately result in a very healthy relationship."

Peridot's head nearly exploded. Instead, she settled for ranting incoherently and hurling her many many notes on the show everywhere.

"Patricia speaks in seven episodes out of five whole seasons! Seven! She's barely in the show! How can she possibly be good match for anyone!?"

"I thought it didn't matter how long they're in the show, so long as they're well developed for what time they're on screen."

With another cry of rage, Peridot slammed both hands over her eyes, pressing the visor in more. "This was a mistake. If you're already reaching these kinds of farfetched conclusions, it can only go downhill from here!"

"Why? Because I've got a different opinion on things?"

"Yes!"

Gradie folded her arms with a huff of indignation. "Well, tough. I fought Homeworld a hundred years to keep my 'different opinions'. I didn't let the Crystal Gems suppress them either, so if you think ranting at me is going to change-"

They were both distracted by the sudden arrival of Lapis, who quite literally dropped out of the sky to land beside the pond.

Peridot quickly crawled over. "Lazuli! You okay!?"

Lapis looked up at her, expecting to see Gradie in her usual spot. When she didn't appear, she instead looked back down, folding her arms.

"Where's Steven? There's something I have to say. To all of you."

The warp pad behind her in the distance activated rather conveniently at that moment.

While a little scared to approach at first, Peridot made the effort nonetheless. "You're not still mad, are you? What's there to be upset about anyway.

"Please, just let me explain it all in one go. Okay?"

Gradie had come down from the utility by the time Steven made it up the hill. She kept behind Peridot, while Steven went right for Lapis.

"I tried finding you, but then I saw you flying back from up past the water tower?"

Lapis chewed her lip, and for a moment, she considered backing down on the whole matter. That moment passed with her choosing to stick with it.

"I've done some thinking, and, well…" She lifted her head back to look at the three. "I don't appreciate being treated as if I need to have potential problems sorted out for me, without anyone actually saying anything to me until it's all done anyway. That's what hurt most when you showed up Gradie, not feeling like I was being subverted, or when you called me angsty. No-one bothered to come tell me what was happening for an entire day! You even admitted you went around the place but didn't bother to come see me privately either! That's why I got so upset!"

Her arms had fallen away during that, fists clenching tight again. When the emotional high was over, and she began to calm back down, she returned a hand to her face to try and ease the discomfort further.

"Steven, I know you've been trying so hard to help out after what Shungite did to me, but I really thought you knew me better than to do something like this. I don't like surprises, and this was really not the time to get me used to them."

Displaying his ever present humility, Steven nodded solemnly. "You're right, I'm sorry. I promise we'll all make sure you're aware of what's going on from now on."

Lapis nodded as well in acknowledgement. She then glanced at Peridot, trying to show more that she wasn't perpetually upset, before stepping forward to come face to face with Gradie.

She twisted her head to the side, splaying out the opposing hand with a bit of an edge to her expression. "I am sorry about what I said. I say what comes to mind, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's hurtful. I just really didn't expect to have something other than glee at finding out you're not the only Lapis anymore."

"Well, let's fix that." Lapis did her best to smile, holding her hand out. "Since we got off to a bad start… I'm Lapis Lazuli."

After glancing at her hand for a few moments, Gradie brought back her smirk and took hold of it. "Nice to meet you Lapis Lazuli. I'm Lapis Lazuli. Call me Gradie though."

"So you made it stick after all?"

"So far, yeah."

A seagull flew overhead, squawking at the group on its way. It opened up an awkward pause that was narrowly stopped by Gradie's quick thinking.

"Say, Lapis. Peridot thinks I'm crazy for thinking that Patricia was a good match for Percy, I was wondering what you think of her."

Peridot, having remained silent for Lapis' sake, immediately went back to grumbling loudly.

"She's seen one episode Lazuli! One! And already she thinks she can contradict my carefully constructed research!"

"Didn't you do most of that research from watching one episode anyway?"

"I watched it over a hundred times! Not just once!"

While the trio became caught up in the discussion, Steven used that opportunity to slip away back to the warp pad, and hopefully spare himself the grief of having to listen to even more theorycrafting.

"Maybe she's onto something. Maybe Shungite needs a new approach as well."

With that thought in mind, he stepped onto the pad and warped back to the temple.

The black screen closed in around the empty warp pad in a star shape, then popped altogether.

* * *

(Imgur link for Gradie, copy and paste this onto end of URL; WpNtkhS )


	5. Tapdancing for Gems

Just in front of the warp pad stood Steven, Amethyst and Pearl.

About a metre in front of them stood Peridot, eyes closed, holding her tablet behind her back.

She raised her hand to clear her throat, for the sake of the gesture, and opened her eyes.

"I have asked you three here to be my test group for the program I have been working on tirelessly these past days. As you know, my task has been to create a distributable interlink to the warp pad tracking system that will function on Earth devices. With the aid of certain 'art assets' provided by Connie, I have completed that task."

"Yay Peridot!"

Steven raised both his hands while looking to the others.

Amethyst rolled her eyes and put a hand on her hip.

Pearl nodded in a slightly tired fashion.

Their reactions were of little concern to Peridot, who continued on with her speech. "I have spent many hours debating how best to present this program. It has become an expression of my adapting to life on Earth in a functional manner. Thus, I present to you…"

She brought out her tablet, and after unlocking the screen, twisted it around to show the program display itself.

"PeridApp! Version 1.03."

The moment of elation from Steven was quickly overwhelmed by a growing sense of revulsion. His eyes began to bulge as he clutched at his head, slowly retreating to the ground in a fetal position.

Amethyst's lack of interest was swept away by a sudden urge to gag and choke, gasping for air that she didn't even need and yet still felt as if she was struggling to breathe.

For all of her nodding and waiting for Peridot to get to the actual news, Pearl was left recoiling at the sheer horror of what had been spoken.

Steven finally got enough breath in his lungs to reach up to Peridot and whisper in a rasp. "The pun… hurts…"

Peridot rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you've made far worse."

When all of the gems ceased their antics, Peridot turned the tablet back around to continue her demonstration. "As you will see in a few minutes, the program will send out an alert, either through vibration or a verbal warning of my own design, and then proceed to provide a global view of the warp pad in question, with refined targeting for pads such as the ones in the Beach City area, where we are standing right now."

By then, the Gems had ceased their antics, Pearl taking up the tablet when it was offered to her. It certainly looked well made, the interface was simple enough to read at a glance, and all of the warp locations were marked. Those at Mask Island, the communication hub and the Sea Spire were all crossed out with a red x.

"Alright, the name might have been painful, but this certainly is an impressive…"

Her eyes focused down on a button in the bottom right corner that looked rather conspicuous. She pointed to it while turning the tablet around. "What does this do?"

A snicker came from Peridot. "Why don't you try it out?"

With a growing suspicion, Pearl looked to the others, then back to that button, gradually moving her finger in to press.

It made contact with the screen.

" _Clod!_ "

She nearly dropped the pad in fright as Peridot burst out laughing.

"That's my built-in CLod-On-Demand button! It works!"

Pearl growled, clenching onto the pad hard. "Peridot!"

Steven pulled it free before she ended up breaking the screen, glancing at Amethyst who reached over to press the button herself.

" _Clod!_ "

"Okay Peri, that's actually kinda funny."

"Amethyst it is not! Don't encourage her!"

" _Clod! Clod! Clod! Mega Clod! Clod! Traitorous Clod! Clod!_ "

Once Peridot was done laughing, and Steven had handed the tablet back, she settled back into her presenting tone. "I of course plan to continue refining the program when ideas come to me. For now, I feel much safer knowing that most of us Gems now have a better awareness of where the others are, and where Shungite is as well."

Pearl, having calmed down, folded her arms with a sigh. "Assuming Shungite still intends to use the warp pads. I suppose this does mean we can stop taking shifts at the escape pod."

" _Warning: Clods on the move!_ "

"Ooh, ooh! Here they come!"

The warp pad activated shortly after, cutting off Pearl from objecting to Peridot's choice of 'verbal warning'. Just as described, the program itself honed in on the temple warp pad, flashing off the visual warning as well.

On the warp pad itself materialized Lapis and Gradie, both stepping down to join the gathering.

"So, did it work?"

Peridot tapped the CLOD button.

Gradie snickered at the way it made Pearl cringe. "Awesome. So, no more attack drones flying around the barn constantly?"

"Not unless Shungite arrives there herself. But now we've got two Lapis Lazulis to deal with her, I feel much safer."

Lapis grabbed her arm while blushing a little, Gradie shrugging it off with her trademark grin.

Pearl took the opportunity of the quiet moment to make her own little announcement. "Well, in equally relevant news, I believe I have properly restored the robonoids to operate by my vocal commands. Shungite shouldn't be able to take control of them with her own Gem tech."

She made a small double clap. On command, a flask robonoid hobbled out from the corner behind the kitchen, climbing up the side of the counter and waiting beside Pearl.

Even Peridot was impressed enough to nod approvingly. "I'm glad to see you've made an effort to better understand current Gem technology Pearl. Now, how do you plan on getting them to the other warp pads safely?"

"Oh, I'll just swim to Mask Island and walk to the communication hub if I have to. Assuming the repair gel is still good."

"It's designed to last for several years, the gel will work so long as the robonoids can still properly activate it."

As the two began to discuss the robonoids in further detail, Amethyst rolled her eyes and motioned for the others to follow her outside. There, she groaned on her way down the steps.

"They're gonna be at it for hours now, no point hanging around."

Steven looked to the others with a bit of a shrug, but decided to follow after her anyway. "At least they're really talking. I know a lot's changed since they were duking it out in big robots, but they haven't done anything together until now."

The way it was put made Gradie chuckle softly, following just after Lapis in step. "There sure is a lot I'm sad I wasn't around to see. Pearl and I rough housed a couple of times when she taught me to sword fight, but that was about it."

"Wait, you fought with swords?"

"Well yeah." Gradie waited until they were down on the slope towards the beach before answering Lapis' question. "Because I'm a gradient Gem, my powers over water are too unpredictable to rely on in a fight, no telling when they might just fizzle. So, instead, she taught me how to form and summon my own gem weapon, and then how to use it."

She tilted her head back and grasped the space around her gemstone. A hilt materialized beneath her chin, three stars adoring the pummel and the two ends of the crossguard. The blade she drew out carefully, until she had the sword in both hands at last, right cupped around the base of the blade itself.

The other three Gems stopped to look at it properly. Even Amethyst was mildly impressed, though she made little show of it.

After a cautious glance, Steven touched a finger to the flat of the blade. "Huh. I thought water wings were the only thing Lapis Lazulis could summon."

"That's what I was told." Lapis had folded her arms by then, looking more than a little concerned.

Gradie shrugged it all off as she tilted the sword back to her neck, sinking the blade into her gemstone again. "You'd be surprised just how little Homeworld will tell Gems about their own capabilities. I doubt they deliberately gave Peridot ferrokinesis after all. Just a matter of exploring potential, and wanting to in the first place."

Throughout all of that, Steven felt a slight tightness in his own throat. Something about the way Gradie had kept on talking while shoving the blade into what otherwise looked to be her neck set off a natural reflex to gag. He was quite grateful when it vanished altogether again.

"I guess it'd be nice to have someone else to fight against as Stevonnie, change things up."

Amethyst groaned again and began heading off in the direction of Beach City again. "Talk about it on the way at least, I don't wanna stand here all day."

While both her and Lapis went on ahead, Steven and Gradie followed behind at a slower pace, the latter furrowing her brow.

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea. It's not like Stevonnie will just reform a few days later if something slips." They came around the length of the cliff, bringing the boardwalk into view. "Besides, I'm not a duelist. I know Pearl wasn't fond of having to take on my scrapper style when I settled into it. I don't think I'd make a good training opponent for anyone other than Amethyst."

"Garnet can take rough blows pretty well too."

Gradie chewed her lip. "Garnet too then, maybe."

Further ahead, the conversation between the other pair wasn't too dissimilar.

"You don't like Gradie, do you?"

Amethyst gave one of her shrugs, flipping some hair over her shoulder. "I'm surprised you do. There's just something not quite right about her, and I don't mean the gemstone thing. And you're the most suspicious Gem out of all of us, you're supposed to know something's up first."

"Well, yeah." Lapis very briefly glanced back over her shoulder. "I might not have liked how they went about introducing her to me, but it's been a few days now. I'm not really getting the impression she's gonna turn on us like Bismuth or Navy. And, you've barely said anything to her. Somehow I'm not the unsociable one here."

"It's the way she acts that bothers me. She's always smiling, but not in that real nice way like Steven or Garnet do. Sometimes…"

She eventually grumbled it away, letting it all out with a deep breath. "Nevermind. Let's just go bother Sadie for a while. She'll want the extra company, right?"

Lapis shrugged. "Three Gems and Steven, guess we'll see."

* * *

Sadie was in the middle of restocking the fridge when the door opened. Amethyst shambled over to one of the seats, while Lapis entered with a smile and wave for Sadie.

"Steven and Gradie aren't far behind. Amethyst wanted to come keep you company. You're not too busy, right?"

By then, Amethyst had her head leaning onto her palm, trying to look mildly happy.

Rather taken aback by the further consideration offered, Sadie only managed a small shrug while continuing with the restock. "No, not at all. Make yourself comfortable."

She was barely done when Steven and Gradie finally arrived. The sight of the Gem that had landed on the boardwalk, and subsequently run behind Steven on the way back to the beach house made her a little nervous at first given the earthquake before her arrival.

Gradie on the other hand met her with a wide grin, waving as well. "Hey there. Sadie, right? The one human who didn't start chanting and all that silly stuff."

"I suppose? I don't really know what goes through Ronaldo's head sometimes, or Mayor Dewey's for that matter." Her mood picked back up when Steven came in at last. "Hey Steven. I take it we don't have to worry about those earthquakes after all?"

"That was just Gradie breaking herself out of the ocean floor."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Well, the windows didn't break this time, so no real harm done."

Steven made his way over to where Amethyst had chosen to sit, while Lapis had gone over to the counter and once again hoisted herself up there as she had a couple of weeks earlier. Gradie remained in the middle of the room, looking around all the different items and feature in mild curiosity.

"It's actually kinda amazing just how far humans have come from animal hides stretched over wood frames." When she finally noticed the look Sadie had made while carrying some empty boxes to the back, she sighed to herself. "Sorry, I'm five thousand years behind, it's just taking me awhile to get used to the reality that humans actually have technology of their own now. I'm not trying to be rude or dismissive."

All Sadie could do was nod and quietly continue on to the back area where they kept the cardboard safe for recycling day, increasingly uncertain of what to say.

Gradie looked to Lapis, who shrugged in response. Both remained oblivious to Amethyst's face landing on the table behind her arms, or Steven's own look of concern.

"Okay, so first human of this era I meet already has a less than ideal impression. I told you Lapis, I'm not that good with humans."

"You'll get used to it. It took me months to actually start talking to humans other than Greg. I actually spent time with some of Steven's friends when I went for that short flight. Just came down to being more personable."

After crossing her arms, Gradie sighed and made her way over towards Lapis, the clack of her sandals on the floor emphasising just how quiet things had become.

"Humans with technology, five active Crystal Gems, a fusion roaming free. Things used to be so simple…" Her idle gazing drew her attention to the noticeboard. A more recent addition from how clean the paper looked depicted a pair of feet, as well as text she didn't recognize. Her curiosity had been piqued nonetheless.

"Steven, is there a human fascination with feet I'm not aware of?"

He made his way over, took a quickly look at the poster in question and chuckled softly. "It's not about feet Gradie. It's a dance party."

She tensed up briefly at that. "Dance party? Humans have their own take on fusion?"

"No no, for humans it's just for fun! Could you pass it down?"

Steven motioned for her to pull the pin out first, which she did, holding it between her fingers while handing the poster itself to him.

"Huh, it's a community run dance night for children and teenagers, with supervision from local authorities, as well as facilities for parents and other responsible adults. And it's a few nights from now in Wilmingmore." His eyes lit up as the realization hit him. "Oh my gosh, we should all go! I can invite Connie as well, we'll all have a great time and forget Shungite is out there doing bad Homeworld stuff!"

Gradie for once actually looked genuinely uncomfortable at the suggestion, Lapis a little less so. Both were still easily trumped by Amethyst exasperated sigh.

"Steven, we can't just pretend Shungite is going to keep to herself. She already tricked us into leaving Beach City once, she'll probably come back when she realizes we're not around!"

Lapis slid off the counter again, a new look of determination present. "Not all of us have to go. We can't do much against Shungite anyway. And after what she tried to do to me, I really don't want to be around for when she next shows up."

"Oh sure, just run off and have fun while the rest of us get cracked. That's so responsible and mature of you Lapis."

"Amethyst-"

Before Lapis or Steven could speak up, Amethyst was on her way out, gone before Sadie returned.

Gradie blew a flick of hair off her cheek. "I was wrong, she's the one who's in a real kind of mood. Barely even said a word to me y'know."

Steven frowned again, uncertain of what to make of her behaviour. Upon noticing Sadie had returned, he did his best to bring back the smile, holding up the poster. "I was thinking of going with Connie and some of the Gems. What about you?"

"Oh, uh…" Sadie glanced at all three, starting to stuff her hands into her pockets. A knowing look from Lapis eventually made her pull them back out. "I might tag along actually, if you don't mind of course. Lars probably wouldn't have gone, but I think he'd appreciate seeing photos either way."

"I'm sure we can do that."

"Great. Let me know when you've got a plan in mind."

Steven looked to the two remaining Gems. "I think Peridot will come if you two do. It'll be fun, and you can meet lots of new people while you're there."

For once, Gradie refrained from making any kind of remark, trying very hard to not make it obvious she was still concerned about making another poor impression.

Lapis on the other hand slipped off the counter with a smile. "I'm sure I can talk her into it. We won't have to actually dance though, right?"

"Of course not. It's your choice, same as always."

In a moment that escaped all but Gradie, Lapis winced very slightly before settling out her smile. "Alright, I'll come. See you there then Sadie?"

"I guess."

With that, Lapis made her way out, followed behind by Gradie. Both looked to each other outside, and after conversing for a bit, took off in the direction of the barn.

Steven sighed softly, then looked back to Sadie. "Gradie's a little different, she means well though." He glanced at the poster in hand. "I forgot to ask her to pin it back up, sorry."

"It's okay, I'll sort it out in a bit." She took hold of the poster genty, making another glance over the details. "To be honest, I'm more worried about Amethyst. I've never seen her upset like that before."

"I'm gonna go see how she's doing. Take care Sadie."

"I will. See you tomorrow, or whenever you wanna plan the trip."

* * *

Surprisingly little happened between his departure from the Big Donut and the evening of the dance. No sign or report of Shungite, no corrupted Gems emerging from hiding, and no major incidents with Amethyst. It had been made all too clear that she was not going to open up about what was bothering her, and they knew better than to pressure for answers.

Discussing the night in question went ahead, Pearl and Garnet quite eagerly electing to remain behind to keep watch over Beach City, Amethyst's absence being all the answer they needed.

A call to Connie led to another discussion between them about the dance, and eventually a different discussion between Greg and Doug on making it a 'father's night out', given Priyanka would be working that night.

When the night itself came at last, Steven was dressed up in a semi-formal shirt with neatly fitted jacket, and appropriate pants and shoes. Greg had gone for a similar approach, donning a maroon tuxedo set without the tie.

Pearl had quite the grin on her face when looking at the pair together. "Oh, I must admit, this is the sharpest I've seen you two in a while. Not overdressed, and definitely not underwhelming."

Greg smiled in his always genuine way at that. "Thanks Pearl, that means a lot."

Steven's phone vibrated right before the warp pad came to life. Lapis, Peridot and Gradie materialized, yet again in the middle of discussion.

"I told you Patricia was going nowhere!"

"Well excuse me for trying to form my own opinion on the show and potential couplings! Clearly we all have to take your interpretation as the only valid one!"

Lapis shook her head and left the other two at it, making her way over. "Gradie's up to season three now. Think you can get her to move to the lighthouse before they tear the barn apart?"

"Ronaldo's been out of town for NovaCon, but he'll be back tomorrow. I'll ask him then."

"Please do." With a nod to Pearl, and to Greg, Lapis made her way over to the door for a bit more privacy with Steven. "It's actually nice hanging out with another Lapis Lazuli, but half the time she's either snickering at everything Peridot says or flat out arguing with her about the show. She's quiet enough when it's just the two of us, but when it's all three it becomes a problem."

Steven nodded, putting on a supportive smile. "I'll invite her over to watch the Lonely Blade movies. Since she's a swordsman too, it might give her something else to talk about that won't lead to arguments with Peridot."

"She'll start arguing with Pearl instead. But I guess she'll have to come here for that."

Not long after, Greg made his way over, the other Gems not far behind. "Doing alright Lapis? I think we're about ready to go."

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Great. Van's just outside. Hope you don't mind riding in the back, I'll need the front seat for Sadie. No roof rides tonight I'm afraid."

"If you say so…"

Greg tilted his head forward a little. "I know that look. It's not just cold feet. Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really?" She balled her fists for a moment, looking to Steven for guidance. They released with another calming breath. "I'm a bit tired of talking, and I don't think I can avoid it in the back of the van. If you don't mind, I'll just fly there. And maybe ask Gradie to as well, unless you really want to listen to her argue with Peridot over imaginary couples."

Lapis left the house before either Greg or Steven could respond. Instead, they looked to each other in stunned silence.

"I thought she worked things out with Gradie."

"It's complicated. She said she was sick of listening to Gradie and Peridot argue about Camp Pining Hearts, but I think she's still worried about facing Shungite again."

"She's not alone there. Any ideas?"

"No. Part of me thinks…" Steven sighed, his hand moving down to the gemstone in his navel. "That we just went about things wrong with her. That she can be reasoned with after all, provided she doesn't hurt anyone again."

Greg's hand moved to his shoulder. "And the other part."

Steven looked up, swallowing back his worries for the time being. "There's no negotiating with a Gem her size. A Gem that can hurt everyone just by being in the area and playing a flute. Even Jasper is terrified of her."

With a return to the supportive smile, Greg moved his hand to the other shoulder and tugged Steven in. "Better that you talked about it now so you enjoy the dance, right little man?"

Steven's smile that eventually beamed was enough to put both at ease. "Yeah. Shungite can wait until tomorrow."

"That's the spirit. Now, we'd better get down to the van if we don't wanna end up running late."

They found Lapis just outside on the balcony, apparently waiting for Gradie to inform her of the 'plan' to fly along with her, and after a quiet exchange of glances headed on to the van itself. Not too long after, Peridot eventually found her way down, clambering into the back compartment alongside Steven.

"My apologies, Pearl ended up getting involved in my discussion with Gradie, and things took a bit of a tangent."

Despite rolling his eyes, Steven put on a brave face and smile at the inevitable deluge coming his way. At least Sadie would be joining them soon enough.

* * *

Wilmingmore was bathed in soft moonlight by the time they arrived. The traffic, while a little heavier than expected as they drew closer to their destination, was not enough to keep them from arriving with time to spare.

There was already a notable amount of people making their way inside, nothing the size of a crowd certainly. Large for a wider community event, but not overwhelming. And more importantly, it was free of any sign of Kevin or his friends.

Sadie was first out, shoes clacking onto the concrete and tapping on as she turned to retrieve her handbag.

Greg wasn't far behind, sliding out and swinging the door shut while he turned his gaze up to the early night skies. Lapis and Gradie weren't far behind.

"Well, we made it here without any incidents whatsoever. Not to jinx things, but I'm really glad it's looking like we'll all have a good time tonight."

The two Lapis Lazuli's landed next to the van around the same time that Steven and Peridot finally emerged. The latter had finally been convinced to wear a thinner tuxedo set of Steven's from years earlier, and even a pair of neatly polished shoes in addition to her red bowtie to complete the look.

When the whole group gathered together at last, the attention went to her most of all.

"I dunno. The red feels like it's clashing with everything else."

Peridot sighed, folding her arms in a glare at Lapis. "Human fashion is convoluted anyway. The bowtie is special to me, I'm not taking it off."

"Suit yourself." Lapis glanced down at herself, notably her bare feet. "Greg, you said there was a shoe policy, right?"

"I think I can ask them to make an exception for a Gem, if you'd rather…"

She shook her head, lifting out both arms and taking a breath. After a few seconds of concentration, her body flashed a bright blue light, during which she rose a little in height. When the light faded, she was in a full dress, glittering in dark blue that gave the gemstone on her back a wide berth, that ended in a slant from left to right. Her feet were neatly set in deep navy sandals that vaguely resembled the ones Gradie wore.

Gradie herself grinned at the new, albeit temporary attire. "Looking amazing sis. But, you sure you can hold this for the whole night?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She looked back over to Steven and Peridot, both looking stunned by her new appearance. The sheer awe they had made her blush just a little.

Even Sadie was a little taken. "Wow, really put this old thing to shame." She tugged at her white dress for effect. "I'm joking, you look great, really suits you Lapis."

The blush deepened a little before it was shaken off. "Thanks Sadie."

"Alright, we'd better head over, get some time to settle in before they start."

With Greg leading the way, they only got about halfway across the parking lot when Steven stopped, then began racing ahead to the initial surprise of the others.

"Connie!"

Also crossing the parking lot was Connie and Doug, who both changed direction towards Steven and the others upon hearing his call.

"Steven! Wow, you really went for the formal look huh?"

"What, this?" His hand went up behind his head, suddenly feeling a little awkward. That vanished when Connie lightly nudged him in the rib, bringing his attention back to the blue shirt and jade skirt she was wearing. She too had opted for a semi-formal look after all.

When their exchange of grins passed, she finally looked to the others. The sight of Peridot in a tuxedo made her chuckle at how posh it made her look, but it was the pair of Lapis Lazuli's that her attention was soon drawn to.

"Oh wow. Lapis, where'd you come up with this look?"

"Some photos from a magazine. Wanted to keep things simple."

"Well, you should be proud." Connie turned to Gradie at last, reaching her hand out while the Gem did the same. "I'm Connie, Steven mentioned you during quite a few of our conversations."

"Gradie. I've heard a lot from the catch-up stories the Gems told me. Nice to meet you at last."

Conne giggled when they shook hands at last. "Huh, you weren't kidding about the Ozzland accent Steven."

"I know right? We should really go there sometime, when things have calmed down."

After smiling at the thought, Connie finally made her way over to hug Sadie lightly. "It's great to see you here too. I know Steven was getting worried..."

"That's okay. It's nice being out of Beach City for a change." When she noticed Greg starting to nod towards the front doors, she gestured for all the others to follow along. "I'm really glad to come along. Lot less pressure when there's people I know."

"Yeah, before I became friends with Steven, just the thought of going to any kind of public party was nightmarish. Now, I'm really excited."

By the time they reached the queue slowly filtering inside, Greg and Doug had struck up a conversation of their own.

"I'll be honest, this isn't usually the sort of thing I take Connie to. Actually being invited to stick around with other parents, little unusual."

"It's great! I used to perform at some of these parties back in the day, the kids have a great time, the parents know they're having a great time, and then get to embarrass their kids as well as themselves with karaoke! Everyone wins!"

Doug chuckled in a blatantly nervous way, scratching at his stubble. "Right, I don't stand a chance against an actual singer, do I?"

"You'll be fine. It's not about sounding good, it's about having fun and making Connie hide her face. Deep down, she knows you're just kidding around when the words come out off-key."

"How very reassuring." As they drew closer to the doors, Doug glanced back over his shoulder at the Gems behind. "So, I don't recall meeting any of these Gems, though Connie has described two of them I believe."

"Yeah, Gems aren't usually the sociable type. Lapis, Peridot and Gradie are all fine though, nothing to worry about." Greg looked over his shoulder as well anyway. They all seemed calm enough, and certainly less out of place than Garnet or Pearl would be if they weren't in the mood. Whatever concerns might have been raised, for the moment, they were doing just fine so far.

* * *

" _Welcome all here tonight to the biannual Wilmingmore County Dance! To all those have travelled from the greater Delmarva area, we're glad to see you here safe and sound!_ "

An applause went around the adults in the hall. The main lights had been dimmed, leaving the strobing colours of the various party lights to light up the floor. The band stage where the announcer was looking over them was lit in the back by a constantly changing hue.

" _We've got a great line-up ready for you all! Pick a partner, step onto the floor, and remember to keep a respectable space between you two!"_

Steven bounced in his seat eagerly, looking over to Connie. "This is so exciting! They really are looking to keep things safe!"

"Exactly! See Dad? I knew it was gonna turn out fine!"

Doug ran a finger around the inside of his collar while chuckling softly. "Alright, I'm convinced. Better get out there before they start."

Both Connie and Steven were about to do just that when the latter paused, his brow furrowing. After a glance across to Connie, he looked over at Lapis, tucked into the corner in a shy way.

"Actually, maybe we can take the second dance together." He moved out of his seat so he could extend a hand out to Lapis. "How about it? You do trust me, right?"

She looked up from her shy gaze, almost startled by his question. "Of course Steven. Why wouldn't I?"

"It's just, the last time you danced…"

For just a splinter of a second, she felt her mind drawing back to those dark months. It was swept away immediately by a comforting hand on her shoulder. Gradie's hand.

"I'm over what happened with Jasper. This is just for fun, like you said." When Lapis rose from her seat and moved to take Steven's offered hand, it was with renewed confidence. "I'll follow your lead. Okay?"

"Okay."

The confident move made Gradie smile in pride. With the grin in place, she too stood up, offering her own hand out to Connie. "I'm a little rusty myself, care to show an old Gem how it's done?"

Connie looked to her father, who while a little less confident around the Gems, still nodded in approval. "I'm sure you'll get the hang of it quickly. Just remember, my feet are real."

"Of course." Gradie glanced back at Lapis and Steven while guiding Connie onto the dance floor, joining the growing number of pairs around them.

Greg was left looking over at Peridot, currently hunched over her tablet. "Sadie should be back soon if you wanted to dance with her as well."

Peridot looked up from her pad for several seconds before shrugging. "I'm happy where I am."

"Alright, just making sure."

On the dance floor, Steven quickly looked over at Connie before turning his head to Lapis. She was still glancing around with a look of hesitation present.

Everyone was waiting for the dance to begin, and the delay left her with more time than she liked to rethink what she was doing.

"Steven, I know I said I got over being Malachite, but, how can we be sure we won't fuse by accident? Isn't this what happened with Connie the first time?"

Another glance was exchanged between Steven and Connie as she heard her name mentioned, and soon guessed the context.

"It won't, not this time. We're keeping this simple, and we won't get caught up in the moment. I promise."

"Alright. I trust you, remember?"

Steven left it as a nod as the music finally began to play, the booming voice from the stage starting the dance directions at last.

* * *

Nearly three hours later, by which point all but the Gems were tired, the event settled into the quiet phase, filled with softer conversation and the occasional song by whomever actually had a decent voice and was willing to share.

Sadie, Doug and Greg had all gone off to different groups to chat. Lapis and Gradie had flown to the roof for their own private talk. And when Peridot elected to return to the van for some quiet of her own, it left Steven alone with Connie, and a question burdening on his mind.

"So, that was a lot of fun huh?"

"Yeah."

Silence between them began to grow, Steven holding onto his arm nervously. He eventually wrought up his determination, putting that nervousness aside with a sigh. "Maybe this isn't the time to ask, but… what did you think of Gradie?"

"Huh?" Connie blinked as she contemplated the question. "She's nice, and actually a decent dancer as it turns out. I'm actually surprised she's a Lapis Lazuli, she seems so different from Lapis."

"Right…"

Connie blinked again. "Oh, you mean if I noticed any reason why Amethyst is acting so weird around her. I really can't tell, maybe it's a Gem thing?"

"Lapis doesn't know, and Peridot hasn't said anything. I guess it's up to her to come clean about it then."

"I'm sure it'll work out, someone will think of something. And you're great at resolving personal conflicts."

The assurance made Steven chuckle. "Yeah, when I know what the problem is to begin with. But you're right, one of them will say something eventually."

* * *

Both Lapis and Gradie were staring up at the stars, looking for the general direction of Homeworld, or at least the nearest Gem colony.

"I guess the planet hasn't rotated enough yet. I could just barely make out where colony Elysium was when I summoned the ocean tower to get there."

"You really picked the worst one to go for then."

Lapis turned to Gradie, noticing a look of resentment on her face. "Why? It was a little overwhelming seeing how far the technology had developed, but it wasn't an awful place."

Gradie's otherwise cheerful grin had turned into a scowl by then, at least until her expression softened away into bitter regret. "Maybe that's five thousand years of change for you. I hated being posted there before the colony ship moved on. All of those scientific Gems, staring at me…"

She noticed Lapis' concern, and with a return to her grin, figuratively brushed the whole matter aside with a wave of her hand. "They're all probably long gone now in nine hundred years of war. No point in worrying, especially when they're never coming to Earth again." With a chuckle, she leaned over and nudged Lapis' side. "You're certainly doing better by the day."

"Yeah, no accidental fusions, no awkward moments. It went fine."

"No kidding. A Lapis Lazuli and a Rose Quartz-Human fusion, makes me sick just thinking of it. Already unnatural for differing Gems to fuse, but throwing other races in the mix? Eugh."

Lapis froze up, her expression remaining blank in a saving grace. However much she feared a repeat of Malachite…

"I mean, that Garnet seems to be stable enough, and good for her, but man oh man they could learn to keep all that to themselves once in a while. Not like we'd start fusing in front of them and make a big fuss out of it, right?"

It took a while for Lapis to regain control herself, during which she tried so desperately to keep a straight face. When she did look over at Gradie, there was a definite cooled tone to her.

"I don't think I'll ever fuse again, I just can't trust myself. Not after what happened."

When Gradie's hand came to rest on her shoulder, it felt colder than ever.

"See what I mean? When you mix Gems, you end up with all these unpredictable and hazardous problems in all those different combinations. Not that the Crystal Gems back then would ever admit it."

Virtually all of Lapis' mental will was going towards avoiding another outburst from herself. What Gradie was saying did have some truth to it, but the way she said it, the attitude that was so clearly on display, all of it was giving her a sick feeling right in the core of her gemstone.

"Garnet is stable, Malachite was anything but. It's not always a bad thing."

Gradie's smirk had faded by then, replaced by one of lacking any care. "Whatever. One case out of potentially thousands actually lasted, and wasn't bad in any way. I bet she got a kick out breaking up Super Ruby that one time, really rubbing in how much better the Crystal Gem way is…"

"I wouldn't know. I don't talk with Garnet much."

At last, Gradie sighed herself, settling back to a calmer demeanour. The sparse clouds had faded again, enough to give a renewed view of the stars above them.

"You're doing the right thing by not trying it again, Lapis, believe me. Even slight variations can be harmful to a fusion. Especially if you go in expecting to become a Super Lapis Lazuli, and emerge as something unexpected. It's not a good feeling at all."

"So, you had to fuse with other Lapis Lazulis?"

Gradie shook her head. "No, I wasn't allowed to. Star Lapis Lazuli insisted on that…" Her eyes lowered to the ground several metres below them. "Fusion turns nasty the moment you deviate from the rules. Star taught me that again, and again…" She closed her eyes. "And again. You stick to your own kind, you don't lose sight of who you are, what you are, and you come out fine. Simple as that."

Lapis remained silent, doing her utmost to keep her lips from trembling. What else could she say, when Gradie had so clearly already made up her mind?

"I'm not going to let myself be bothered by Garnet strutting around. But, if any of the others think fusion is a necessary part of being a Crystal Gem, they've got a big surprise coming." In the tension of the moment, Gradie's fists had clenched up tight. "I didn't fight a hundred year war to be ousted by the very Gems I tried to protect, just because I disagree with some of their views…"

The black screen closed in around Lapis' face, then popped altogether.


	6. Gone Viral, Gone Home

"Hello?"

Lapis immediately regretted giving away her position so callously, racing for the nearest alcove to hide in.

The lab was empty, many of the lights dimmed. A pad that she had suddenly found in her hands was lying on the pale blue-green floor where she had woken up. At a glance, the only words in Gemspeak on the pad that stood out to her spelled out 'Project Cold Star Carbon.'

That had told her enough about where she was, and with time to think, how she had ended up there. By some strange feat, she was now projecting into another Lapis Lazuli altogether. And however valuable such an opportunity could be, her first thought had been to break off the connection. Something attempted without success.

A few tense minutes passed before she slipped out of the alcove. No Gems had come by, or even responded to her call. For the time being at least, she had time to get a look about the place under the guise of the Lapis Lazuli working there, until she woke up back in the barn at last.

With the pad retrieved, she walked up to the big glass-like dome, tinted black, that dominated the room. Several consoles lined the circumference, with one half of the walkaround lowered by a few steps to provide access to a door into the dome on the leftmost face. Oddly enough, she couldn't make out anything inside the dome itself, save for a few mechanical arms equipped for various tools extending from the ceiling. A circular cutout with a line through the diameter on the floor below seemed to indicate something was hidden beneath.

"Hm. I wonder…"

After looking over the pad, and her shoulder, she carefully tapped a few controls. To her amazement, and slight concern, the hatch in the floor opened up to a rising column, atop which sat a large black gemstone. Not unlike the one on Shungite's shoulder at all.

She nearly froze at the realization, fearful that at any moment, a second Shungite would take form and blow her cover. When nothing happened for yet another minute, she relaxed again.

"Inactive. Play it cool."

Not wanting to push her luck, she sent the gemstone back down into the floor. There was hardly a more relieving sight than seeing it locked away from view again.

She took the time to read through more of what the pad had to offer, many a time running into a file that required an access code she had no way of obtaining. The specific details of the project itself were very tightly locked down, even against the very slim chance of being spied on it seemed.

Which meant there could very well be other precautions in place.

"Alright. Act like a Lapis Lazuli serving White Diamond. Easy."

For the first time in several months, not since returning to Homeworld, she took a moment to practise the diamond salute until she could do it flawlessly, and more importantly without hesitation.

The sole corridor out of the room was her next target. She approached with the pad in hand, doing her best to feign idle activity with it by pretending to move files around. If things weren't left as they had been before she ended up in that body-

"I've completed the first batch of sessions for the Peridots, Moonstones and Onyx. All have come up negative on preliminary examinations."

Lapis moved to one side of the corridor, keeping her head tilted forward to look more engaged with the pad. She didn't recognize the voice that had spoken from further beyond.

"Good, good. We have few reliable Moonstones to spare as it is until the Laputa colony enters production. Which batches are to be examined next?"

She froze up again. That voice she recognized all too well, and the mere thought of being in her presence terrified her. That fear was confirmed as a giant white foot came to rest outside the other end of the corridor.

"I'll be looking at the penta-Tourmaline, the Beryls, and the sole Lapis Lazuli on the team. The latter in particular, given it was her report that alerted us to this potential problem."

From the same direction that White Diamond had stepped from followed a much smaller gem. Aquamarine in colour, she wore an off-white lab coat that matched the shade of the two hair ties keeping her pigtails in place. She too had a pad of her own, which she seemed quite focused on.

"Keep me informed of your progress. Project Cold Star Coal has reported a second Lapis Lazuli emergence on Earth, a gradient defective it appears from the old war. I do not like the idea of them working together and interfering with Shungite's work, or that of our own Lapis Lazuli especially."

"A gradient Lapis Lazuli? I wonder…"

Lapis froze again as the second gem looked up from her pad, and turned her head directly to her. Two eyes locked onto her, the one above her nose frowning first, while that in her left socket adopted a softer expression. The right eye socket was occupied by her gemstone.

"Oh yes of course. You were assigned to study a gem of that particular nature on Earth some time ago, weren't you Apatite?"

* * *

The shock of waking up after the terror of the moment nearly caused Lapis to launch off the hammock and through the nearest wall. She instead crashed to the floor with a yelp, shaking violently until she caught up with herself and calmed down.

"Lapis! You okay!?"

Lapis remained huddled on the floor a while longer, not looking up until Peridot had rushed over and grabbed her shoulder.

"Yeah… Just got astral projected all the way to Elysium."

"What?"

After a grunt, Lapis peeled herself off the floor and shuffled back towards the nearest post she could lean against. "I ended up in that Lapis Lazuli working at the lab. I found Project Cold Star Carbon, but then White Diamond and Apatite showed up." She winced at those last few seconds, Apatite's stare burning into memory. "I don't think I'm gonna try sleeping until Shungite's gone, not after that."

"Hmh, I still fail to see the point. I've been very productive in the meantime." She gestured over to the dull glare of her laptop. "But, so long as you're okay…"

"Yeah, yeah I'll be fine." Lapis got up on her feet, brushing her dress down as she did so. "I think I'll just fly around a bit. Any idea where Gradie went?"

"Somewhere south. She didn't tell me anything specific."

"Okay." Lapis chewed her lip as she slowly walked over, extending her wings in preparation for the flight. At the threshold of the barn, she looked back over her shoulder. "You gonna be alright by yourself?"

"Of course. I'm just about done with my PeridApp update, at which point I'll resume my analytical essay on season two of CPH. I'm expecting quite the viewership to discuss my insightful thoughts on the developing story arcs."

Lapis snickered, though the smile it left quickly faded away. "Okay, have fun with that. I'll be back sometime after sunrise. I learned a bit about White Diamond's lab that the others will want to hear."

She took off shortly after, having taken a moment to look over what horizon there was on the odd chance there was a blue woman flying through the air already.

Peridot stood there a while, quietly watching her depart, until finally placing her hands on her hips with a huff.

"Sure, save it for everyone at once rather than telling me first. Oh well."

She pottered back to her laptop, the last few additions and changes to be made taking minutes at most.

"Then again, it's not like there's anything I can do with that information. The frustrations of limited access to Gem technology."

A grumble or two later, thanks to the tedious publishing process, and she was finally able to sigh in satisfaction.

"Another job well done, if I do say so myself." Her little grin began to form as she chuckled in delight. "I can't wait to see their faces when they get the update!"

She giggled all the way over to her charging cable, laptop slung under arm comfortably, not even for a moment considering that she had forgotten to set the publication to private…

* * *

"Alright. This time…"

Steven took a deep breath, trembling as he raised his right foot up. Pearl and Amethyst were watching nervously, waiting for the tense moment to be over.

"No more bad events!"

He set his foot down on the boardwalk. No rumbling from deep within the mantle of the Earth, no mean-faced seagulls, no Shungite.

No disaster for the day.

"Yay Steven!" Pearl gave a small clap, trying to look as pleased as she could for his achievement, however minor it actually was.

Amethyst shrugged while pottering over to him, lightly nudging his shoulder. "See? Just a coincidence. No biggie."

"Yeah, it just feels a little better with you guys there just in case." He took a few steps further onto the boardwalk, turned on the spot, then came back to the concrete shelf of the Big Donut's patio. Still nothing. "Alright, no more being afraid of the boardwalk for setting off strange events. I promise."

Pearl widened her smile right before her phone buzzed, tucked into the sash of her shirt. For once, it wasn't the alert from PeridApp, as it was still updating to last night's release, nor was it a call from her particular companion.

"Huh, who would be calling from the house?"

She brought it up, and nearly dropped it in surprise when Garnet's voice came through.

" _Hello?_ "

"Garnet? We're just outside the Big Donut, is there an emergency that's keeping you at the temple? Do we have to rush back there immediately?"

" _No._ "

She glanced at Steven and Amethyst, quickly flapping her hand to reassure them. "Oh. To be honest, it's hard to tell sometime if you're panicking or not. Is there a reason you decided to call instead of coming here?"

" _I wanted to practise. And see if this a better form of communication for longer distances._ "

"And? Is it?"

" _Not really._ "

"I suppose it loses the personal touch."

" _Regardless, I have a mission that needs handling. Has Gradie returned yet?_ "

Pearl lowered the phone down to take a long look at the sky. Neither of the Lapis Lazuli's were in sight.

"No, not yet. What did you have in mind?"

" _There's a corrupt gem in the Alpha Kindergarten, one that will be upset by the use of warp pads and become unpredictably violent. I need Gradie and Amethyst to take it down for return to the temple. You and I have to take the robonoids to Mask Island and the Communication Hub before they shut down again._ "

"Alright. What about Steven?"

" _I get the feeling Peridot will need him around._ "

Both Steven and Amethyst were waiting with great anticipation when she slipped the phone back into her sash, waiting to finally be told exactly what had been discussed.

As usual, Pearl was quick to straighten up and organize the instructions for recital before relaying them at last. "Amethyst, Garnet would like Gradie and yourself to head to the Alpha Kindergarten over land, there's a corrupt Gem to be dealt with."

The look of excitement turned to bitter disappointment in a near instant. It had been no secret that Amethyst had some distrust of Gradie, but now it looked to be borderline contempt.

"Did she say why I got stuck with her?"

Pearl frowned a little at the tone taken, as well as the implication. "You're not 'stuck' with her Amethyst. Gradie is a skilled swordfighter, admittedly not nearly to the refinement that thousands of years of training will achieve, but she isn't dead weight in a fight. Besides, she needs to readjust to combat before Shungite shows up again."

Amethyst nearly descended into a scowl before turning away, flicking her hair over. "She's got a bad flow. You say I'm difficult sometimes when we form Opal? Well, that's the kind of feeling I get around her."

Before either Pearl or Steven could ask more, Amethyst transformed into a bird and flew off for the kindergarten.

The latter tapped his chin in thought, eventually looking to Pearl with a saddened shrug. "Lapis talked with Gradie, and she said everything was fine between them. I still don't get what Amethyst sees that we don't."

Pearl sighed a little, gesturing to one of the shaded table sets and sitting not quite opposite Steven for a more personal setting. "Gradie… Lapis Lazuli has a lot of layers to her personality, far beyond what you'd expect with a developed sapient mind, and perhaps that's to do with the gradient in her gemstone, who can really say? The fact is, there are some aspects that will come across as, well, abnormal to others. She's incredibly complex, and while it sets her apart as unique, complexity has its own problems. Especially when she probably never had the proper kind of training to deal with all the traits extending beyond the role of a typical Lapis Lazuli."

She paused to let Steven breathe. He had remained very quiet and attentive, clearly bearing a question or two at times, but not daring to interrupt just yet.

"Amethyst developed differently from all of us in mental state, so she may be seeing a layer of Lapis Lazuli that we aren't for whatever reason. Even though she appears to be taking a closed stance with her, she might yet be the best way to help Lapis Lazuli open up about the problems she needs our help with, but can't bring herself to admit to."

Her expression lowered to the table, where she noticed her hand had begun to clench up. She forced it to relax back out. "She is still a close friend of mine, even after all these years. And it does worry me that there might very well be unresolved issues. They were hard enough for me to get over, but for her…"

Steven reached his hand out to hers at last, offering up his own form of comfort. "I get what you mean Pearl. She just needs time to ease out, and I'll help her feel comfortable until she's ready to talk. Okay?"

The pure selflessness of it caused Pearl to sniffle as her eyes watered up, despite not actually possessing water in her body at all. "Steven, I don't say this enough; you're an absolute precious treasure to have around."

A gentle sigh from nearby made both turn towards the patio edge where Gradie was standing, her trademark smirk having softened down a little.

"You always had the sweetest compliments to give." She withdrew her wings into her back while approaching the table, taking a moment to straighten down her dress and sleeves. "I just got back from a place called 'Mexico'. Did I miss anything?"

Steven looked to Pearl.

Pearl looked to Steven, then back to Gradie, finally remembering something to break the awkward pause. "Actually, Garnet would like you to fly over to the Alpha Kindergarten. There's a corrupt Gem that needs to be captured; Amethyst will be working with you."

"Great, I assume it's still the same place it was all those years ago?"

"You won't miss it." Pearl's cheery expression dropped. "It expanded a lot after you vanished. But, just remember to not use the warp pad and you'll be fine I'm sure."

The smirk returned as Gradie grew her wings back out. "Got it. I'll see you all in an hour or two then. Say hi to Lapis for me."

While she took off, Pearl moved to stand as well, taking the time to watch her departure. "I'd better get back to the temple and round up the robonoids. Remember, you can call me if anything goes wrong."

"I know. Take care Pearl."

"You too Steven."

When Pearl made her way back down the beach out of sight, Steven closed his eyes for a moment's peace, the only sound he could hear being that of the waves softly rolling up and down the beach, as well as a faint, high pitched sound in the distance.

Until that sound grew loud enough to distinguish as a wail. One he had heard previously,/ right before the Roaming Eye showed up.

Despite seeing Peridot running down the sidewalk around the corner of the Big Donut, he still almost collided with her in the mad sprint that she was on. When she did slow down, it was to grab him by the shirt and shake him about violently.

"Steven! Help!"

"Peridot! Please! What's wrong!?"

"Everything Steven! I made a terrible, horrible, irreversible mistake!"

Steven wrested himself free of her grip, taking hold of her shoulders in turn to make her calm down. "I can't help if you shake me unconscious! What happened?"

Peridot nearly curled up into a ball, her eyes going wider than ever.

"I accidentally made a public release of PeridApp! It's a complete disaster! I'm internet famous!"

* * *

When Gradie touched down on the gaping chasm that led into the kindergarten, she remained deathly silent.

Pearl had downplayed the devastation if anything. What had once been a single canyon with a dozen injectors roaming the walls over a hundred exit holes had sprawled out beyond the limit of what she could even see. She could only tell it was even the same place by the vague shape of the chasm.

"Amethyst? You around?"

With no reply, she drew her sword in preparation and advanced in. The eerie silence was soon filled out by sounds from her own distant memories. The soft hum of the injectors drilling away, Quartz soldiers on both sides clashing. Swinging her sword down on a Liddicoatite that got in her way, shoving the body aside as it collapsed into dust. Making the final charge on the Rose Quartz she had been ordered to capture by _the_ Rose Quartz.

Their last ditch attempt to capture and turn Homeworld gems through coercion, one of her most bitter failures as a Crystal Gem lieutenant. And now, she was wandering through what was quite possibly the direct consequence of failing that one mission.

What used to be the main command centre in the kindergarten itself was now nothing more than an empty patch of dead ground. No sign at all that any kind of structure had once been there.

"Amethyst? Any sign of that corrupt Gem? I don't exactly know what to look for."

"Figures."

Gradie took a few more steps forward, finding Amethyst down a canyon to her left sprawled out on top of a jutting rock. She looked completely disinterested in looking for the corrupt Gem.

Rather than making a fuss over that fact, Gradie instead decided to approach with a more casual demeanour, and a different question in mind. "What do you mean, 'figures'?"

"We don't actively go out and hunt down corrupt Gems, we stop them when they make a fuss. But you wouldn't understand why, would you?"

Gradie frowned, crossing her arms. "I think I understand enough to know what you're implying. I'm not out to pick fights, that was never how I did things." Her frown deepened when Amethyst rolled her eyes. "On the other hand, you've been nothing but distrustful of me from the moment we met. Maybe one of us has a fight to pick after all."

In her nonchalant way, Amethyst shoved herself up to sit on the rock properly, glaring down at Gradie. "I know what fake smiles look like, all of them. You're not smiling because you're hurting inside and you don't want anyone else to know."

"Oh, so how am I smiling then?"

"Like…" Amethyst clenched her fist, grinding a small rock down to gravel in the process. "Like someone who's got a big knife behind their back." She rose to her feet, folding her arms defensively as well. "You're fourteen years late if you've got unresolved problems with Rose. I won't let you take it out on Steven, and neither will any of the others."

In that moment, Gradie faltered just briefly, her sword nearly slipping to the ground. At the last, she regained the grip on it, but lowered it to a less threatening pose.

"The Crystal Gems that gave me a hard time are long gone. Rose Quartz actually cared about me, respected me, even if I didn't agree with everything she championed." Her brow firmed as the flicker of anger grew within. "The only one left I have a problem with is the Homeworld Gem that made my existence a living nightmare. The one that doomed me to the depths of the ocean. And she's long gone from Earth."

Amethyst softened in her own stance a little at the admission, raising a single eyebrow. "That one Gem you mentioned? Apatite?"

Gradie shook her head. "No. Star Lapis Lazuli."

* * *

"How? How how how?"

Steven hummed, staring at the statistics for PeridApp. Over three hundred thousand downloads during the night, several dozen reviews raving about how much fun they were having with the CLOD button alone. Countless link-throughs to Peridot's Cheeper that had exploded with followers.

"I don't get it. What exactly did you add in the latest update?"

Peridot stopped in her frantic pacing just long enough to go over exactly what she had done the past few days, before going back to slightly less frantic pacing.

"After further discussion with Pearl, I expanded the tracking feature to also display the origin warp pad when issuing a warning, so that we know exactly where Shungite has come from in addition to where she is going. I also laid the groundwork for a future update that will give us control over the robonoids through our mobile devices, once their transceivers have been reconfigured. That's all!"

Steven looked down to his phone again. "I guess a lot of people are just overly excited about having your voice screaming 'clod!' at their fingertips. It doesn't look like any of them care about the actual tracker."

"And why would they? It's useless to humans!" She stopped in her pacing again. This time, she took a deep breath, something she had learned from watching how Lapis calmed herself, then plodded over to sit beside Steven. "As much as I like the idea of being admired by all of humanity for my true talents, being famous for yelling clod is not what I had in mind. How do I even fix this?"

"I don't think you can. People found something funny, and until they stop finding it funny I don't think you'll be able to do much about it. The best thing to do is wait." He reached a hand up to her shoulder when she curled up again. "This is the right opportunity to start doing what you really want them to see. Don't try and exploit the fame, just keep being you, and those who actually care will stay around and listen while everyone else moves on."

Over the course of several seconds, Peridot lifted her face back out from between her knees, forming an expression of near pure disgust.

"Steven, that was so sappy, even for you."

"Well, that's how it is with some Earth cultures. Just don't let the flicker of fame get to you either way and things will work out in the end."

Peridot's lower lip tightened up for a long while, even after she had retrieved her tablet and began typing away.

Despite knowing better than to look, Steven couldn't help but occasionally glance at what she was typing to her Cheep feed.

' _Could you all KINDLY STOP ASKING ME TO RECORD LINES TO PUT INTO THE APP!?_ '

"Peridot, that's not-"

The door opened, in an unusually gentle way given the past few weeks, to Lapis of all people. She looked as if she was about to deliver important news, save for the distraction of Steven and Peridot shoving each other over what she was about to do with her tablet.

"What's going on? Where's everyone else?"

Steven frowned at Peridot until she relented, casting the tablet aside so that they would both give Lapis their full attention. "Gradie and Amethyst are at the kindergarten, we're not allowed to use the warp pad there until they get back. Garnet and Pearl are on Mask Island."

Lapis' expression sank a little as she closed the door behind her. "You didn't tell them about my dream last night Peri?"

Peridot swallowed, leaving Steven feeling nervous himself.

"Steven…" A chilling feeling rolled out from her gemstone, making her clutch at her arms. "I ended up in the body of that Lapis Lazuli on Elysium. I saw the lab, I saw another Shungite gemstone." She breathed in a little, feeling an invisible weight gathering around her. "I was metres away from White Diamond and Apatite. I think… I think she saw me, inside that other Lapis."

* * *

"How do you know she's still out there? She could've been broken later in the war for all you know."

Gradie didn't answer for a long while, keeping her sword raised as both she and Amethyst moved through the looming walls of the kindergarten together. The tension between them had subsided some, but the continued lack of a corrupt Gem to fight had begun to wear on her. The feeling that they were being watched, a level of intelligence that had somehow survived corruption, and that scared her greatly.

Amethyst was still unfazed, her whip remaining coiled in hand, but still at the ready. "All I'm saying is it's a bit of a different case for you and Star compared to Lapis and me against Jasper. That's recent history, not thousands of years in the past and probably out of reach altogether if she's even still active."

A sigh followed as Gradie stopped in her tracks, sinking the tip of her sword into the ground to lean on it ever so slightly. "She was too important to just be broken or abandoned like that. Star Gems aren't expendable. She's out there somewhere, and sooner or later I have to find her and settle things. Until then, I'm going to keep on smiling because it's so much easier to pretend I'm not moping and feeling like there's no joy left in life than actually let others know that's how I'm feeling."

"Gee, and I thought I had a low phase."

The shrug finally came. "I've had a long time to think about it while formless. That's one good thing about repeated poofing I guess, not losing track of time. I might not know where to go or how to fit in, but I can avoid dragging others down at least."

"Huh." The whip felt a little heavier in Amethyst's hand as the silence creeped back in. To help keep it at bay, she made a cursory glance around their surroundings in search of a topic change. "We should've run into that Gem by now, or heard it do something. Garnet wouldn't have sent us if it wasn't actually destroying stuff or being threatening. This is weird."

"Well, all Pearl specified was that we shouldn't use the warp pad. Could've used a bit more description on what to look for. Like big maw, lots of tentacle legs, triangular horn…"

"Triangular horn?" Amethyst stopped in stride, putting both hands on her hips. "That's a little specific, ain't it?"

Gradie tilted her head to the side, raising her sword once more. "Yeah, it is. There's a reason for that."

Amethyst glanced in the direction that Gradie had become focused on. A large corrupt Gem was stamping the ground several metres away, looking ready to charge. While it didn't have a giant maw or several dozen winding legs, she did have a nasty looking spire of pink and green protruding from her bulbous head. The legs she did have were spindly by comparison, but still somehow supporting a large bulk of a body that would inevitably give her a lot of power behind any attack she threw at them.

"Oh boy, she doesn't look happy."

"No kidding. I was just thinking back on when I took out a Liddicoatite during a mission here. And well, she looks familiar."

Liddicoatite roared out with enough force to make the walls around them rumble.

"Great, looks like you're familiar to her as well!"

"If it is her, we can settle for a rematch then."

Gradie lifted her sword further, holding it defensively in front of herself with one hand grasping towards the end of the blade, the other flattening out against the hilt.

With another roar, Liddicoatite began her stampede, crystal horn directed right at her.

"Come on, come and get me!"

Seconds before impact, Amethyst had her whip around Gradie to pull her out of the way, leaving the corrupt Gem to stumble further into the kindergarten until she slowed enough to turn around.

"What are you doing!? You can't block that with a sword!"

Gradie, while a little put-off by the unwanted intervention, managed to keep her cool in the moment. "This is a lot stronger than ice. We deflect the blow away long enough to break that horn off, we'll have a much easier time taking it-"

Before she could finish, Amethyst shoved her out of the way of the second charge, leaving the Gem to cruise right into one of the emergence holes at the bottom of the facing wall.

She got enough of a look before leaping to her feet at the hole to sigh in disappointment. "Oh no, she just took out Lemon Quartz's hole! He showed me where he formed from and everything!"

Amethyst was readying for a spin assault when she was caught off guard by Gradie's exclamation. "Wait, Lemon Quartz? 'He'!?"

"Actually, it's a funny story. You see-"

The third interrupt left Gradie flying towards another wall, impaled through the stomach on Liddicoatite's horn until they both hit the hard stone at great speed. As her hearing began to ring, and sight blurred, she heard Amethyst launching a furious attack before her form disintegrated into a cloud of blue dust, her gemstone landing on the ground with a single bounce.

"Gradie!"

Before Amethyst could rush over to retrieve the gemstone, Liddicoatite backed out of the wall and roared again, stamping the ground several times as her horn broke away. The gemstone beneath it was left exposed, and glowing in pulses.

When she roared the third time, Amethyst dropped her whip in realization. Far from mad now, she was downright enraged. And there was only one specific cause for that in mind.

* * *

"Whew! That should do it!"

The crowd of watermelon Stevens that had gathered around the Mask Island warp pad all began cheering as Pearl brushed her hands clean. The robonoids that had just finished their work formed up into an organized group on the pad itself, while those reserved for the communication hub pad waited patiently.

Garnet turned to the crowd of melons, gazing over the village that had grown considerably since their last visit. "Steven will be proud to see what you all have accomplished. He was needed elsewhere today, but he and others will come to admire your hard work. We Gems are grateful for the continued efforts of Mask Island's new guardians, and inhabitants."

The melons all began to embrace each other as they started crying in joyful union.

Pearl rolled her eyes just a little, still smiling at the display. "They take after Steven alright."

"That they do. I expect Sadie will have quite the warm welcome when she visits here with him."

After adjusting her visor, Garnet turned back around and clapped lightly at the robonoids. "Alright. First group, return to the temple for recharge. Second group, wait here until we're ready to move on."

One of the robonoids wiggled its foot and beeped appreciatively before the whole lot warped away, leaving Pearl to hum while holding her chin in concern.

"I'm still not sure we should've reactivated their autonomous warp pad controls. At least not until Peridot updates PeridApp with the full suite."

Garnet gave a very solemn shrug. "Shungite doesn't know we kept most of them around. And if she planned on restoring the galaxy warp, she would have brought her own robonoids, or used her flute. If they start behaving erratically, we can simply pop them and be done with it."

"Well, it sounds simple when you put it like that." Pearl tapped her chin before finally shrugging the matter off herself. "Alright, I suppose Steven can call us if that group doesn't arrive properly. On that note actually…"

She reached down to her phone, and after a few swipes brought up the details for Steven's own phone. "I am glad that Peridot's little adjustments give so much more coverage to all the devices, phones didn't always work here. And now we can-"

Her phone buzzed abruptly, switching over to PeridApp as she brought it back down.

"Hm, it already buzzed for the robonoids. I wonder if Steven's testing it out."

Garnet moved closer as a disturbing feeling began to settle in.

The screen itself displayed a single warp pad activation, ending at the Alpha Kindergarten.

"Oh, I made it clear to them that it was vital they-"

Her voice went deadly silent as it began tracking the originating source, extending further and further out, until it stopped on the main African continent.

Very far from where any of the Crystal Gems would be.

She looked to Garnet in a fearful moment. When it was clear they were both reaching the same conclusion, she shoved the phone into her waistband and leapt onto the pad.

"Stand by robonoids! I hope we're not too late Garnet!"

* * *

"Another Shungite!?"

Lapis chewed her lip. "That's my best guess, the gemstone looked nearly identical, size, shape, colour. It explains why she's so strong."

"And big."

Steven thought about it for a long while. Peridot beside him had curled up yet again, muttering to herself, until prodded by him.

"Peridot, what do you think?"

"Shungites are grown in labs clearly! They're artificial gems! Outside the realm of normal kindergarteners! And really hate that I now have to use plural when talking about them now!"

Lapis stepped over to play her best at being supportive and calming. "Maybe shouting less will help you feel better?"

Steven's phone buzzed right before the warp pad activated. All three looked over as a group of robonoids materialized, beeped at Peridot, then waddled over to the corner that had become Pearl's tinkering workshop.

"I guess that means they're done with Mask Island."

When his phone buzzed again shortly after, he frowned in a bit of concern, slowly drawing it out. "That's weird, usually they'd check in first before moving on."

PeridApp was still open from the first warp signal, this time displaying the destination as the Alpha Kindergarten. He didn't even need to see the point of origin to come to a very worrying conclusion.

"Oh no…" He shoved the phone into his pocket and dashed for the warp pad. "We need to go! Amethyst and Gradie are in danger! And not just from that corrupt Gem going berserk!"

Both Gems looked to each other worriedly before hurrying over as well, just as Steven's phone indicated the arrival of Pearl and Garnet at the Kindergarten.

* * *

Amethyst looked between the roaring beast in front of her, and the helpless gemstone not far behind it. Too dangerous to try and retrieve Gradie actively, but if she didn't stop the battle decisively, it was all too likely that she would crack, or even shatter in the midst of it.

Liddicoatite stamped her foot furiously, roaring with enough force to make the very walls around them shake.

With little recourse left, Amethyst closed her eyes, and tossed the whip aside.

"Maybe Gradie had the right idea after all…"

When she opened them, she balled up her right hand and smacked it into the palm of her left.

"Come on! Come and get me!"

After one final snort, Liddicoatite began her stampede.

Amethyst's right arm swelled massively until it was grossly oversized compared to the rest of her body. With all of her concentration put towards keeping balanced, she pulled that arm back, and gave a battlecry of her own.

"This is for spearing Gradie!"

She thrust her bloated arm forward just as Liddicoatite closed for the ram. At the exact moment of impact, time froze around them, leaving the two Gems locked in a great battle of roars and physics, Amethyst's hand clenched right around the gleaming gemstone.

The moment passed with a tremendous explosion of energy, carving a thin line deep into the floors and walls of the kindergarten, blowing dust all through the area.

When it settled, Amethyst was left standing there, her arm having returned to its normal size. She turned her hand around and spread out her fingers, the Liddicoatite gemstone resting comfortably on her palm with a fine coating of light dust that soon faded altogether.

"Sorry sis. I wish it didn't have to hurt so much."

She was about to bubble the gemstone away when she looked back over to Gradie's, and nearly dropped the one in her hand out of shock.

Shungite was standing there, the blue gradient gemstone perched between her index and thumb, looking over it with her cold, emotionless face.

"Fascinating. Fully formed, no physical defects, and yet a tragically overwhelming lack of uniformity."

The whip was back in Amethyst's hand in a flash.

"Let her go! Now!"

Shungite looked over her shoulder as Pearl and Garnet leapt onto the ground behind her, followed not far behind behind by Steven, Peridot and Lapis.

"You didn't bring Connie along this time? Wise choice."

Garnet took a step forward, summoning her gauntlets despite how futile any threat she made was. "Shungite, return Gradie to us! She's done nothing to you!"

"That may be so, but the fact that you all care about her means she holds value now…" Shungite turned back to Amethyst, remaining cold in demeanour. "While there are some in White Diamond's court who will have interest in studying a defective gradient, one or two in particular more than others, I have no interest in her. I came here for the Gem in your hand. Hand the Liddicoatite over, and I will return this Lapis Lazuli unharmed."

Amethyst's grip on her whip tightened down even more. She glanced past Shungite's boots to the others, all looking ready to fight what would clearly be a losing battle. But then, that was the whole point of being Crystal Gems.

She looked at the gemstone in hand, and with a slight wince, wound her arm back to toss it in Shungite's direction.

Shungite herself caught it with perfect dexterity, immediately tossing Gradie's gemstone down to Amethyst with the exact angle for her to catch it without any problems.

"I am a Gem of my word. A shame that the Lapis Lazuli you hold is not. I do wonder if you'd be so willing to trade for her if you've seen the things I have while exploring her mind."

With the Liddicoatite in firm grasp, she leapt up to the top of the wall to their left. Mere seconds later, she hovered back to view on a black disc, lightly tapping on a small console that was raised from the disc by a tiny pillar.

"It pleases me to know that the interference I set with your pod's tracking system worked. You arrived two minutes later than I expected. Don't rely on it as a means of anticipating where I am going, as much as where I have been."

And with that, she was flying off into the distance out of sight, another corrupt Gem to her name.

All of the others rushed over to Amethyst as soon as it was clear. Garnet, having dematerialized her gauntlets, was first to speak.

"You did the right thing Amethyst. As harsh as it is to say, one corrupt Gem is not worth giving up an active Crystal Gem."

Amethyst had to choke back the sick feeling building in her throat before she could speak herself. "We know what she's done to Jasper and the others, just through dreams! Now she's got actual gemstones too!"

"And if Shungite sent Gradie back to Homeworld, or one of White Diamond's colonies, she'd suffer far worse. You cannot let this choice ruin your judgement."

Steven moved in while the others gathered around, gently resting a hand over Gradie's gemstone. "I know you and Gradie haven't gotten along, but she'll be very grateful. That's something, right?"

After clearing her throat of constructed phlegm, Amethyst nodded, turning her hand so the gemstone rested in Steven's hand instead.

"Yeah, yeah. Keep an eye on her until she's back, okay? I…" She looked back over her shoulder at the first impact site. "I need a bit of time here. She was gonna tell me about Lemon Quartz."

Pearl's expression picked up at that. With a look to Garnet, she moved forward, gently placing a hand on Amethyst's shoulder while starting to guide her towards the now ruined holes.

"I can fill in some of the details. Lemon Quartz was definitely a unique Citrine variant…"

While her voice trailed off, Garnet adjusted her visior and looked to Steven, Peridot and Lapis. "You three have spent the most time with Gradie, I trust you all to ensure that she's brought up to speed when she reforms."

Lapis nodded. "You can count on us. We've got a whole season of Camp Pining Hearts waiting for her."

Garnet nodded in her blunt way. "Steven, I'll be making the journey to the communication hub with the robonoids. We need to keep an eye on it in case Shungite attempts to repair or modify it. If Shungite comes back, come get me with Lion."

"Got it. Hopefully he'll be up for another trip."

After another nod, Garnet looked down to Peridot at last. "Peridot, let your fans know that PeridApp is going private again. Be blunt, but also be polite."

The thought of that made Peridot grump, but the sentiment behind it was clear. They had to move on with their normal activities.

"Alright. I'll try to be polite."

"Good. Gradie can tell you all about Lemon Quartz when she gets back, and fill in the details for Amethyst. He told me himself at one point that he was very close with a Lapis Lazuli, several decades before I joined the Crystal Gems."

All three of the other Gems went wide eyed in union. "He?"

The black screen closed in around Garnet's face.

Garnet made a coy smile. "You'll understand soon enough. Trust me."

And then popped altogether.


	7. Sisterhood, Mr Good

" _Commence report;_

 _Data recovery module landed at designated coordinates on schedule, and fully intact. Recovery of said module went without complication. I am in the process of decompiling and restructuring the necessary programs to interface with the Alpha Kindergarten archives as I make this report. No further hostilities from the Gem renegades have occured, and interrogation of corrupt Gems in their custody have run their course. I am proceeding with tertiary objective for the time being._

 _Status report hold._ "

* * *

The Alpha Kindergarten was perfectly desolate when Shungite arrived, making use of the now assembled travel pad to land outside the lab entrance with speed, and more importantly stealth.

The Gems had no reason to come there on that particular day, and no reason to suspect that there was any need left to guard what was otherwise considered a destroyed Homeworld emplacement.

She angled her feet to match the slope, otherwise remaining perfectly upright as she slid down the incline, coming to a comfortable stop at the end without even flinching. The sight of the place in such disrepair and ruin made her blank expression twitch ever so slightly.

"Typical."

In just a few strides, she had crossed over to the mangled control panels, shrinking down her form while doing so to avoid the need to bend down. The large white cube she had in her hand was tossed towards the touch control pillar. It quickly transformed into a hand of its own, crawling up the pillar with lanky fingers to ooze onto the receptacle until it had filled out the exact shape of the pillar surface.

"Engage emergency restorative procedure."

The hand began to glow, feeding out a reconstructive energy that spread throughout the whole computer system, and eventually into the power core itself. In that time, Shungite had reached into her shoulder guard and retrieved her personal data pad.

"Initiate uplink to database. Upload all recovered files, then purge existing system."

A cube shaped receptacle formed in the back of the white hand, in which she placed a black-trimmed blue cube. The trim turned a glowing white itself as the upload commenced, during which she continued to take notes on her pad.

It took several more minutes for the upload to process. When complete, the cube flashed twice, then sank through into the palm of the hand as it lifted off the panel, settling into its grasp before the hand melted back into its original shape around it.

Shungite put her pad away again to retrieve the now larger cube. "Now, for that progress report…"

She turned on her heel and began walking back towards the ascent out, unfazed as the lab computer began to crack, and soon fizz. By the time she was starting the climb back out, entire walls and tubes were starting to melt away, until there was nothing left but a giant lump of green sludge slowly oozing down into the depths below.

* * *

" _Resume report;_

 _Careful analysis of the full database has not yielded any information not already available back at official sources. It would appear that Peridot Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG did not in fact bother to log updated reports and observations in said database, despite being the only viable and appropriate receptacle, as dictated by standard lost colony protocol._

 _The status of the Cluster remains indeterminate, however lack of discernible seismic activity would suggest that it has not progressed according to schedule. Assumption based on evidence would point towards unexpected termination of Cluster, either due in some unforeseen way to renegade interference, or another cause beyond my ability to speculate on. Until such time that I can extract mentioned Peridot for interrogation, or create a viable method of reaching the Cluster physically, I am suspending work on tertiary objective._

 _Status report hold."_

* * *

" _Resume report;_

 _Secondary objective remains a gradual process of observation and occasional interaction. A group of humans carrying primitive weapons came across the outer perimeter of my base before fleeing when I moved to observe, only to be replaced hours later by slightly less primitive humans in vehicles wielding projectile-based weaponry._

 _Their attack was futile as expected; the humans themselves dispatched with ease. I doubt they will return anytime soon._

 _Progress towards primary objective is sufficient. The method devised to track down active corrupt Gems is yielding results at the Alpha Site. I will attempt extraction of the Gem before the renegades can interfere, and proceed with more thorough interrogation once it is in possession._

 _Status report hold."_

* * *

After setting the Liddicoatite gemstone down on a flat surface, Shungite snapped her fingers to bring the pod's lights on, illuminating the cave fully. Her flute was already in hand, rising up to her lips while she stared at the gemstone in front of her.

As soon as it began to take form again, she played her note of healing. The bright glow of the forming body glitched a couple of times before settling back down. Where there had been a bloated body and spindly limbs now remained quite the reverse; a thin body with bulky limbs that kept Liddicoatite unable to move as her beastly head reverted back to a more humanoid shape.

Most of the lower right portion retained the spines and elongated teeth of her corruption, and the gemstone on her head was already starting to regrow a protective layer that would eventually become a new horn. It wasn't until she saw Shungite clearly that she realized things were not as they were, and began to break down in tears.

"Why am I not fully cured? Why does it still hurt? Why can't I move?"

Shungite remained expressionless. "Liddicoatite Facet-4L9 Cut-11F, you will only speak to answer the questions put forward to you."

Liddicoatite's face scrunched up. "Who are you? What are you? Why won't you cure me?"

"Liddicoatite, what was your estimated level of intelligence while corrupted?"

"I don't know! I don't know anything! Why are you treating me like this!?"

Shungite looked down to her pad, putting down the answer as vague.'

"Liddicoatite, have you interacted with any other Gems in the time you were corrupted?"

"Help me! Help me and I'll answer!"

"What was the reason that led you to be left behind and subsequently corrupted? What do you recall about the state of being corrupted? What are your thoughts on the capability for weaponizing the Corrupting Resonance for general use?"

She rolled her eyes when the Gem broke into sobbing altogether. With barely a change of emotion, she reached up and plucked one of the fins from her shoulderguards, attached it to the end of her flute, and speared it right through Liddicoatite's twisted form.

After one last withering cry of pain, her form collapsed into glittering pink-green dust that soon dissipated as well, leaving the triangular gemstone with the crystalline growth covering its top surface.

"Why do they all cry? They are offered a moment's peace, and all they do is cry, and complain, and whine for me to do more. Where is the gratitude?"

She formed a bubble and sent it off to Elysium for further study, sighing at last as she removed the fin from her flute and returned that to the safety of her gemstone, the fin slotting right back into her shoulderguard.

* * *

" _Resume report;_

 _My attempt to interrogate the captured corrupted Liddicoatite has proved unsuccessful. Providing physical relief in addition to mental relief from the corrupt state had no effect on the willingness of the subject Gem to answer questions posed._

 _The Gem in question has been returned to Elysium for analysis, I look forward to reading reports from the overseeing Apatite that is residing there at this time, they may in fact lead to more yielding results from future interrogation attempts._

 _Until the next corrupt Gem becomes active enough to be picked up by appropriate scanning methods, I will resume work on secondary objective, seeking out other Earth cultures to study and observe for further analysis._

 _Status report hold."_

* * *

After a scan of the planet, she settled for a long journey over the greater continental mass, headed for the opposite side of the land that bordered the ocean that some humans had called 'the Pacific'. It was far from the people of Beach City, and thus an ideal opportunity to observe humans from an entirely different area. The potential for variation had to be more than enough to keep her busy for a while yet.

When she reached the island chain at last, she landed in the more mountainous region where her craft would not be so readily discovered. The last thing she needed was more humans trying to tinker with Gem technology and potentially breaking it after all.

The sun was already on the horizon by then, casting the green hills and pink flowering trees in a brilliant hue of maroon. She found a spot under one such tree, shrinking down yet again to a comfortable size that allowed her to sit on the edge of a long drop and dangle her feet over. There were a few human structures nearby, but the cliff edge offered a very wide view of a city further down the hill that sprawled all the way to the lake's edge.

"Ah, I see you could not resist the beauty of Miyagi."

Shungite turned her head abruptly. A human was walking up the path, bearing wrinkles in his skin. Wisps of grey hair drifted from his head, left loose from the rest that was tied behind his head. He wore only a simple blue robe that went to his knees and no further. Brown sandals adorned his feet, looking as if they had been crafted by hand.

"I came here to study a different culture, nothing more. I do not perceive this place as beautiful."

The man smiled, nodding as if he understood her perfectly. He poked at the ground nearby with his toe, then quite comfortably sat himself down, reaching into his satchel for a small muesli bar that he took a small bite from, and proceeded to offer to Shungite out of politeness.

He chewed and swallowed that bite down while she looked at the bar, chuckling softly. "I know, you Gems don't need nourishment. Nevertheless, it is still impolite to waive a courtesy such as offering to share breakfast."

That got her attention. "You know of the Gems? Well enough to recognize one you have never seen before?"

The man chuckled again, taking another bite, chewing and swallowing that down too, this time with a soft fistbump against his chest to help it along.

"Josei no kyojin saizu. 'Women of giant size'. That is how my ancient ancestors described the Gems that came to this world in their time. The mikata, the Crystal Gems, those that fought with the humans. And the inbēdā, the Homeworld Gems they fought against."

"I did not exist at the time, but I have studied records of that time thoroughly."

"Then it would seem we have something in common!" He laughed heartily at that, letting the silence sink in as he took a larger bite from his bar, enjoying every moment of watching the sunrise, the shift of colours through to amber, and gradually towards blue at last.

Shungite continued to stare ahead, saying nothing at all, and seeing nothing noteworthy in the sunrise itself.

After some time, the man cleared his throat and reached into his satchel, this time retrieving a wooden flute.

"I carved this myself when I was just a young boy. 'Too much weight on the knife!' my tutor said. And yet, to this day I haven't once heard a complaint about the sound it produces."

Completely disinterested in what she saw as a very poor example of her own finely crafted tool and weapon, Shungite remained quiet.

"It took me many months to get this one piece right, it has become entwined with the flute. I call it 'The Tale of Two Sisters'."

He began to play as soon as the flute met his lips. The sound was unlike anything Shungite had heard before. The resonance was so much lower and softer, generated by the movement of air instead of incredibly high vibrations of crystals. She eventually couldn't help but turn her head a little to watch as his fingers moved about with great dexterity, changing the resonance up to several times a second.

"Two sisters…"

Quite to her own surprise, she found herself reaching up to her gemstone, and actually withdrawing the flute contained within, eventually laying it out on her lap.

The old man stopped in his recital with a soft chuckle. "I knew we had common ground. To think, a humble old man from Earth, and a living Gem from the distant cosmos, sitting on a hill together in Japan, and both have flutes of their own."

Shungite stared at the metal flute for a long time. It was so completely different from a piece of wood that had been worked into a particular shape and purpose. How could it possibly produce a sound even remotely like what she had heard.

"It's a weapon, not an instrument. The appearance is coincidental, nothing more."

"In your hands, I imagine it can be whatever you intend it to be."

He smiled and brought his flute back up, resuming the music where he had left off.

After staring at it a while longer, Shungite closed her eyes and did the same.

For the first time since its creation, it produced not a resonance intended to convey a effect into a gemstone, but a simple, single sound instead.

Her eyes opened back up, glancing at the man's fingers, watching the way they moved to produce the different sounds, and began to do the same. Not long after, she was able to mimic the particular pattern he was playing in.

Minutes after, she was the one playing solo, reciting the Tale of the Two Sisters off memory from what she had heard, and applying it to her flute in turn.

When she finished, the man softly laughed again, putting his flute away. "For many humans, music conveys feelings that words cannot always accommodate. I composed the Tale of the Two Sisters because of a fascination I held with a long distant legend. And yet, I feel as if it is more personal to you."

Shungite looked at him, still looking blank as ever.

"I have no sister. No Gem does."

The old man shrugged his shoulders, still beaming that smile as he rose to his feet and stretched his limbs out. "Perhaps not in the same way humans have sisters, and brothers, and other relatives for that matter. I wish you a good day." He bowed politely, then turned to make his way back down the mountain track, his sandals lightly clapping against the dirt once again.

It was a while longer before Shungite got up herself, deep in quiet contemplation. When she did eventually return to her travel pad, it was without even venturing closer to the city. As far as she was now concerned, she had learned a great deal.

* * *

" _Resume report;_

 _My journey to a land far from the renegade base of operations yielded unexpected results. It seems that at least one human population has active recollection of events dating back to the Gem War, presumably told through records that have been reinterpreted and strayed from actual events several times._

 _At least one individual presented and demonstrated a flute crafted by his own hands. I suspect it is far more than a coincidence, however given the primitive nature of it I see no reason to assume they have somehow actually grasped the concepts of advanced Gem technology, and are merely imitating our tools._

 _Perhaps there is something to be learned by studying the resonance pattern that these primitive equivalents create when utilized in a specific order of movements._

 _End report."_

* * *

"So far she hasn't reported any memory of being conscious while in the body of the Lapis Lazuli on Earth. Based on research reports, I would conclude that the process is still one way, and specific to those two Gems alone."

White Diamond didn't move from her seat, still gazing up at the lengthy report that had just come in from Shungite. The most she did to acknowledge Apatite's own progress was a small gesture with her hand.

"You have my permission to proceed as you see fit. We can issue Cold Star a replacement Lapis Lazuli if needed."

"Of course. I will proceed with the final interviews while I decide on a solution to the problem. My greatest praises to you, my Diamond."

"And my appreciation for your continued service, Apatite."

Apatite smiled up at the back of the big white chair before turning around. White Diamond's Pearl and her own Teal Pearl were engaged in idle chatter by that point. While they broke it off immediately upon noticing her return, she smiled and gestured for them to continue.

"Take your time, we won't be returning to the city just yet."

"Thank you, my Apatite."

Just outside the doors of White Diamond's sanctuary, she found her Aquamarine, her pair of Citrine guards and her Sunstone all idly wandering around the entry hall with little to do, until they also quickly stood to attention.

Unlike with her Pearl, she didn't offer any of them a smile. "Well? Were you not given standing assignments to perform while I spoke with our Diamond?"

One of the Citrines reached up to scratch through her bright orange ball of hair. "We uh… We just got told to wait here."

The other Citrine spoke up in an identical voice, scratching the opposing side of her own hair. "Yeah, White Pearl said she'd be with us shortly, then didn't come back."

Aquamarine merely folded her arms and huffed, the wings extending from her tiny lab coat that matched Apatite's making it flap about slightly. "This is why you don't rely on Pearls belonging to the Diamonds for organization. I was going to take the initiative and seek her out, but Sunstone insisted that we remain here!"

"What? No! I just…"

Apatite fixated her two remaining eyes on Sunstone with a bit of a glare. "Don't stutter. Explain clearly, have I taught you nothing?"

Sunstone swallowed nervously, her fiery plume of yellow hair looking as if it was ready to go limp from fright. "I didn't think it would be a good idea for any one of us to just go in there while you were meeting with White Diamond."

It was a fair explanation, but that only made Apatite rub her head in frustration. "Nevertheless, Gems with nothing to occupy themselves with are unproductive Gems. And unproductive Gems are not something the Diamonds, or myself tend to look kindly on." She looked back at the doorway with newfound contempt. "Perhaps I've been too lenient on Pearl after all."

All of the other Gems looked at each other nervously. Teal Pearl had always been the one to look out for them when Apatite was in a less than desirable mood.

"Fine, this incident will pass. Aquamarine, see to it that the next batch of interviewees are assigned time off their duties for their respective appointments."

Aquamarine saluted by covering her right eye with her hand, mimicking the way Apatite's rightmost eye was occupied by her gemstone.

"Sunstone, ensure my limb multipliers are cleaned, charged and prepared. I am getting the feeling I will need to use them after all."

"Of course my Apatite." Sunstone performed an identical salute to Aquamarine, albeit with a lot more shake in her hand.

"Citrines, ready the ship for the flight back to the city. I wish to be done with this assignment as soon as is feasible, any time spared would be greatly appreciated."

"Consider it done our Apatite."

With her orders issued, Apatite sighed again. "I do hope the trust that our Diamond has placed in this Shungite does not go to waste. As much as I appreciate the opportunity to study a corrupt Gem again, a great deal of attention has been taken up by her lengthy reports that are often riddled with mistakes. 'A potential threat from snake-people, bah!"

All of the Gems nodded at her words, barely understanding, but still wanting to appease.

"Well? Attend to your assignments, now that you actually have some!"

The black screen closed in around the departing Gems, then popped altogether.


	8. Perzuli

"So yeah, he didn't get upset about new Gems calling him 'she' and all that. He just rolled with it, and I respected him greatly for that."

Clanking metal made both Gradie and Steven wince. Peridot had been in the barn for a long while now, working on a project that only she was aware of so far. The wait for her to emerge had provided that opportunity Steven had wanted to hear more about Lemon Quartz.

"Sounds like a relaxed guy. So uh, if you don't mind my asking, how close were you?"

Gradie gave one of her shrugs, rubbing her right hand along the opposing arm. "Close enough. We were both off colours, we had similar views on what being a Crystal Gem meant. He liked spending time with humans more than I ever did, but that was never a problem between us."

Another loud clatter from the barn. Peridot yelled at the top of her Gem-equivalent to lungs. Something exploded, shortly after which she yelled again to assure them everything was okay.

Steven looked increasingly concerned. "What about fusion? Garnet told me that there were fusions before her one time."

"Oh, no we never-" Gradie caught her tongue quickly. She didn't want to continue in that tone, but if she hesitated too long Steven would catch on. "We weren't _that_ close. I think he fused with an Amethyst into Ametrine one time for a combat advantage, but that's about it." She chewed her tongue again. "I guess Lemon was better off with her in the end anyway. I'm not good material for fusion."

That made Steven tighten his lips. A worthwhile endeavour to change her mind if he ever saw one. "Don't be silly! No-one's 'bad material' for fusion. Well, except Jasper I guess, she never went into it with good intent. But you're not like her at all!"

Gradie felt her tension rising, more so as Steven took hold of her hand. "Steven I-"

"Relax, I'll just remind you of some of the basics, so you remember what to do when you're ready."

"Steven I really don't think-"

To her relief, and Steven's disappointment, the barn doors opened at last, Peridot strutting out with a big grin on her face.

"Steven, Gradie. I have completed yet another work of genius, combining the primitive yet versatile technology of this planet with the salvaged remains of Gem technology to solve yet another long standing problem of ours. Or more precisely mine."

She closed her eyes and produced a keypad, pressing the first button. Out from the barn came a hovering platform, green in colour, and notably like the one Shungite had been standing on days earlier.

"After taking note that Shungite has converted her landing pod into a mobile platform, I decided to make use of what remained of my own escape pod, seeing as most of it has been stripped out for the warp network monitor anyway."

Peridot opened her eyes and stepped onto the platform, placing the keypad onto a small panel at her ideal height that had been designed to slot it in perfectly. With a few more button presses, the platform was hovering up into the air and around them.

"Now I can remain in the air and manipulate other metal at the same time, seeing as the functions are no longer mutually exclusive."

Gradie used the opportunity to lighten her mood back up with a small clap, akin to how she had seen Pearl give small applause and praise. "Yay Peridot."

Peridot bowed in a showman way with a wide grin. "Thank you, thank you. It's nice to be appreciated for my inventions that may not be of use to everyone immediately, but are important nonetheless."

"Cool. So what else can it do?"

"I'm glad you asked Steven." Peridot lowered it back down and half turned it to give the others a better look at her keypad. "Most of these are not functional yet, I have plans for almost all of them, and can simply add more keys if I run out. So far, I have a special mode that will allow for inverted operation with minimal interference to my ability to perform task."

Upon pressing a button, a matching pair of clamps flipped out from the platform, securing firmly around over the top of Peridot's feet and just above her heel in an exact sized brace. Once certain they were secure, she turned the platform around until it was fully inverted, leaving her comically upside down.

"I like to be prepared for any eventuality that may occur."

Steven chuckled as he moved a little closer. "You look kinda like a big umbrella now!"

"What!? That's the response I get for an arduous night of testing and modification? Being called a fabric-projected rainshield!?"

Gradie snickered, leaning down to look at Peridot's now grumpy face. "I dunno, I think he's onto something here. Why else would you have to work upside down anyway?"

In a midst of grumbles, Peridot began tapping at her keypad again. "It's not even raining today. I don't know why- aaah!"

The platform took off abruptly, spiralling into the air, Peridot's wails echoing behind as she was hauled along by the clamps on her feet.

Both Steven and Gradie went into an immediate panic. "Peridot!"

"Aaaaaaaaah!"

Gradie twisted around to Steven as her wings shot out of her back. "Put that bubble of yours up, and don't let it down until it's safe! If that thing comes your way-"

"I get it." Steven formed his protective bubble as Gradie leapt up into the air, giving chase to the malfunctioning platform. As much as he didn't like being helpless, this was one situation where it really was better to stand aside and let someone else take action.

By that point, Gradie had raced up and had to change direction half a dozen times just to keep track of Peridot. She was flailing at her keypad in an attempt to regain control, looking scared for her life. Flying at great speed was not what Lapis Lazuli were designed for, and the added strain on her icy wings was already becoming noticeable as she drew in closer and closer.

"Peridot! What happened?"

"I don't know!"

The platform began to rotate violently for several seconds, flipping direction with sudden jolts in addition to the chaotic vector it was headed on. Peridot wailed more.

When Gradie finally got close enough to grab at her arm, she was nearly thrown from the sky with the sheer forces at work until she let go again. "Why is it so strong!? Didn't you test against this?"

"Yes!"

Gradie went in again, this reaching up to her neck. "Peridot! You gotta trust me on this one!"

Peridot craned her neck back to get a look behind her, then yelled in terror as she saw the sword being drawn. "Gradie!"

"I can't break those clamps! There's no other way to free you! Don't worry, you'll be back in a few days!"

"Gradie no!"

Just as she readied her swing, a sound began to ring in her mind. Gradie winced in pain and clutched at her head, the sword dropping down until it dematerialized from lack of concentration. She could barely make out Peridot, who was also experiencing similar pain.

"This sound! Agh, why does it hurt so much!?"

As it grew more intense, she lost sight of the fact that they were now headed on an increasingly downward trajectory. All she could see was Peridot as she tried to reach out for her, and finally took notice of the glow coming from her gemstone.

"What… no, no no no-"

She caught a glimpse of Peridot's eyes, wrought with terror, right before they both crashed straight into the barn.

* * *

Five pairs of eyes were glaring at each other around the table. All unwavering. Buck had the mysterious edge of his glasses to raise questions as to whether or not he had in fact blinked, and Lapis didn't need to blink, but the others had all chosen to make no comment on that.

The silence grew tense, Sadie raising her arm.

"Get ready!"

Four lips set down on four straws in four separate glasses.

"Go!"

The stare broke as Jenny, Buck, Sour Cream and Lapis all began sipping away at their chilled milkshakes intently. Sadie in the meantime had knelt down to get an even look at the milk levels of all four glasses.

"Ooh! Looks like Sour Cream is in the lead!"

Sour Cream leaned forward a little, giving an intent grin to the others that Jenny reciprocated. Buck and Lapis remained unfazed.

"Aaand… time!"

Both Sour Cream and Jenny came off the straws with a deep breath, only to groan and clutch at their heads as the brain freeze took hold.

Buck finished a few seconds later, remaining stoic as ever. "Woah. That's cold."

Lapis was barely halfway through her milkshake, and as a Gem had no ill effects to worry about whatsoever.

"It's a tie! Hope you don't mind splitting the prize."

The two 'winners' groaned quietly.

Sadie smirked, and eventually shrugged on her way back to the counter. "I'll just double it instead. It was chocolate dusted and vanilla with sprinkles, right?"

The familiar gurgle of an empty straw soon came as Lapis reached the bottom of her milkshake, leaning back and sliding the glass out with a content smirk.

"Not bad. Maybe I'll keep these changes after all."

Buck gave a little nod. "We'd be glad to see you around more Lapis. You're a fun person to hang out with, like Steven, only you bring different tones to the group."

"Well, I am blue."

"Like the ocean. Digging it." While the others recovered from their brain freezes, Buck leaned forward a little. "Steven brings a lot of positivity to the group. He sees the best in everyone. You bring things down to earth, you see things for exactly what they are. That's a pretty strong combo you've got going with him."

That made Lapis smile softly. "When he takes my advice sure. Sometimes it's a little too late."

Buck nodded, remaining quiet as it was clear Lapis had more to say.

"I get that he wants to see the best in everyone and everything. But sometimes, that just means mistakes are made. Sometimes, we need those walls, and a little distance first." She sighed as her chin came to rest on her palm. "None of that sounds nice does it?"

That brought on the trademark sunglasses adjustment.

"Sometimes you can't be nice when playing it safe. I get it. Feelings can be hurt, but they can also be healed."

Lapis nodded, smiling a little more for it. Whatever she was about to say was quickly interrupted by Sadie's return to the table, the prize donuts for the other two in hand.

"I'll get you a custom one too Buck, just for the heck of it. What about you Lapis?"

"I'll pass. At least until I'm used to holding fluid inside my body."

"Right, gotta space out all these new experiences huh?" Sadie's phone buzzed, drawing her away from the table with a small gesture. "I'll have it ready soon then Buck."

"No problem."

Not five seconds passed before Sadie was rushing back to the table in a sudden panic, keeping the phone pressed against her head. "Lapis! Steven needs you at the barn! There's an emergency with Peridot!"

Lapis was on her feet in an instant, doing her best to remain calm headed. The faint sound of Steven's panicked voice wasn't helping.

"Tell him I'll be there in a minute." She hurriedly waved to the others on her brisk walk to the door, stopping for a moment as she pulled it to. "This was fun. I'd like to hang out again sometime."

All four by the table nodded silently, watching as she stepped outside and took off.

True to her word, she was landing beside Steven outside the barn within a minute of departing. She had yet to actually see what the emergency was, but the absence of Peridot and Gradie wasn't easing her concern by any means.

"Steven? What's going on?"

"Peridot's up in the air! Her hover pad went haywire, Gradie's trying to rescue her and-"

Both flinched as the pair rocketed right into the barn from high above, causing a large cloud of wood shards and dust to billow out. They bounced off the bubble harmlessly, Lapis clearing herself of the debris with a quick burst of energy from her form while moving in to help.

"Peridot! What happened? Gradie!"

Steven was a little slower, having to avoid some larger wood shards, but soon stopped beside Lapis at the threshold of the barn. The cloud that had been kicked up by the impact was making it hard to see inside.

The initial calm Lapis had kept herself in was wearing thin. Damage to the barn wasn't even on her mind. The thought of losing Peridot or Gradie, or both for that matter was quickly rising as a source of distress.

"Lapis, I'll go first if you-"

The sound of crunching metal drove Steven to dive behind Lapis for safety, right after the twisted wreck of Peridot's platform rolled out towards the barn entrance.

A green right hand speckled with blue grasped onto the wreck for support, followed by another right hand of matching colour.

Steven peeked out enough to gasp at the sight, unaware of the shocked look on Lapis' face as she came to realize what had happened.

After a shuddering breath, she emerged out at last. A diamond-star adorned the long sleeved blue shirt that stopped at the midriff, matched by wide flaring green pants that stretched down over those long legs. The large ball of green hair was held back by a light blue headband. Where there had been a visor now rested double-lens glasses, covering the pairs of eyes that rested almost exactly next to each other.

Peridot's gemstone had gained a shade of blue, Gradie's had a fade of blue-to-green.

Lapis was still too stunned to even move when the fusion spoke at last.

"What happened…"

* * *

"Hmm. Hmm. Hmm."

"Hmm?"

"Hmm."

Everyone in the room was quiet while Garnet hummed, and Pearl paced around in a vain attempt to avoid becoming frantic. Steven and Amethyst were perched on the kitchen counter, keeping close for comfort. Lapis was by the front door, looking out over the ocean, about as far from the whole situation as she could allow herself to be.

The Peridot-Gradie fusion was quietest of all, gazing up at Garnet with all four of her eyes, hoping to find an answer.

She eventually sat down on the coffee table, lightly, and removed her visor before taking the lower pair of the fusion's hands in her own, staring right at her.

"You're a very rare kind of fusion. I've only heard of three cases remotely like yours. Even Ruby and Sapphire's original fusion into me was different."

Pearl stopped her pacing at last to sit down beside the fusion and offer what support she could. "Spinel formed when her two respective gems were caught in a ship explosion some time into the war. It did take a while, and for a time we were concerned that the Ruby and Peridot in her had lost themselves, but they did eventually manage to unfuse."

The fusion looked a little more dour for that, but she still did appreciate the intent. "After my time then. That is, after Gradie's time, sorry Peridot. It's okay Gradie. I really don't know how long we, I, can keep talking like this. Me either."

Garnet took a deep breath as she released a hand to rub at her brow lightly. "I realize this is not what you want to hear, but in order to not damage yourselves from internal struggle you will have to accept that you are one being for an indefinite amount of time. That starts with thinking of a name for yourself, and trying not to hold conversations between your two halves vocally. Keep it mental, and you won't strain the physical bond between your gemstones."

From across the room, Lapis mumbled uncomfortably.

Steven chewed his lip, now feeling completely torn about who needed comfort more. Peridot and Gradie were in the middle of the situation, but Lapis had no-one else at that moment.

There was a long hum from the fusion, who by then had also taken her glasses off, having turned them around with her upper pair of hands to gaze down at the reflection in the gold tint.

"What are we even? I don't recognize this 'style' at all from my time studying Earth culture. And I've been gone for thousands of years. Neither of myself have seen anything remotely like this Gem I'm looking at together. I can't even keep track of my pronouns anymore when I am we and both me at once."

Garnet took hold of her hands again, this time bringing them together. "Remember to stay calm. Do whatever comes naturally when you think of calm. Don't think about it."

The fusion nodded, Peridot's set of eyes closing before Gradie's.

A definite concern that the two would end up arguing over that was present until the fusion exhaled peacefully. "Rain."

Garnet smiled, as did Pearl, Steven and Amethyst. Meaningful progress at last.

When the fusion opened her eyes, it was with a renewed sense of calm.

"I read about a rainforest one time." Both sets of eyes moved to meet Garnet's gaze, finding a real softness to them. "Amazonite."

That brought a round of relieved sighs, Garnet's smile widening into a soft grin. "Good, that's the first step cleared. You will make it through this Amazonite, and I think both Peridot and Gradie will be stronger for it."

Peridot's eyes remained hopeful, while Gradie's glanced away momentarily.

"Remember that you're co-existing as an individual, and that we are all here to help. Can you do that?"

A small nod from Amazonite was all she needed to feel assured. With a gentle squeeze of the hands in grasp, Garnet stood up from the table. "Pearl knew Spinel best, she can answer any questions you have about her. I'll be back soon for any others you might have."

She moved around the table smoothly, making her way over to where Steven and Amethyst had remained that whole time. It was clear they both had questions of their own.

"Amazonite is an example of a very rare kind of fusion. Peridot and Gradie suffered damage to their physical forms, but instead of retreating to their gemstones, the blast energy caused them to unintentionally merge for stability instead." She put the visor back on at that point, mostly to keep her own discomfort from becoming apparent. "It's a forced fusion by accident, but forced nonetheless. We have to do our best to ensure she remains stable until they unfuse naturally. It could very easily end in disaster otherwise."

Steven glanced over at Lapis, who had settled for sitting in front of the windows by that point, her gaze remaining firmly away from everyone else. His voice lowered to a whisper nonetheless.

"It's not the same as Malachite, right? Gradie and Peridot don't actually want to hurt each other."

Garnet paused for an uncomfortable length of time before sighing at last. "That's the problem with forced fusions, Steven. When two Gems don't have a choice in the matter, even the kindest personalities can become warped."

With a deeper sigh, she leaned in closer and waited for Pearl to speak, doing her best to avoid being overheard. "Spinel was the only one who managed to unfuse on her own terms. We have to be strong for Amazonite, this is not going to be over anytime soon."

In that time, Amethyst had begun to stare, only breaking herself out of that after it allowed unpleasant memories to surface. "I don't like this. Something just isn't right."

"Amethyst, I know it's not an easy thing to put aside, but right now Amazonite's wellbeing is our biggest concern. When she stabilizes, we can investigate what led to her creation properly. We need Peridot's intellect and advice for that. It's a matter of priorities."

The defeated sigh from Amethyst accompanied a drop to the floor, but she took the point to heart nonetheless. "I'll go let Greg know we have to fix the barn. Again."

Garnet watched her plod off, noting the pause she made to look at Lapis before leaving, then turned back to Steven. "We'll swap in fifteen minutes."

Steven blinked a couple of times, taking a while to catch onto what she meant. When he finally did, he nodded with a determined look. "Okay. I'll do my best."

He too dropped down to the floor, making his way over to Lapis directly. She still hadn't moved from her spot, even when he climbed up onto the cushion next to her. But she had indeed noticed his presence.

"Here I was, starting to really get comfortable. Thinking we were all gonna have some peace and quiet for once. And then this happens."

"Garnet says they'll get through this, so long as we-"

Lapis scoffed, and for a moment regretted it. She had more than one valid point to make, but it was also the one she couldn't bring herself to reveal. Of all times, now was not the time to break Gradie's trust.

"You and the other Crystal Gems see fusion as being so wonderful. You don't understand what it's like for those of us who've had bad experiences, or no experience at all. Just because Peridot tried it in the past doesn't mean she was ready for it now." She pursed her lips with a tense hum. That felt as if it would lead him onto a dangerous question. A shift was needed. "I don't want to lose either of them Steven. But I just can't see this ending well."

Steven reached his hand out to her arm, holding onto it gently as ever. "We'll find a way to get them through this. Peridot may not have fused before, but I'm sure Gradie has at some point. I'm sure she'll know how to keep stable."

It pained Lapis deeply knowing that it was about as far from the truth as Steven could possibly be. And yet, she still couldn't bring herself to break out the truth. What possible benefit was there to gain after all, aside from more time to accept that Amazonite was headed towards a very swift and tragic demise?

"Steven… Gradie is not a stable Gem by her very nature." It was at that point that she tore her eyes from the ocean at last. It was harder than ever to avoid turning the topic to herself again, and harder still to keep things on just the right track. "We can't just keep assuming 'everything will be fine'. We have to be ready for things to not turn out fine, it's as simple as that."

If anything, that only bothered Steven more, a frown growing over his face by the minute. "Why are you convinced that this won't work out? This isn't some new Gem from Homeworld, we know Peridot and Gradie well."

"Yes, but we don't know Amazonite at all. That's what scares me." Lapis slipped off the seat in a move for the door, stopping yet again with a bit of frustration before she even touched the handle. "Buck was right. We're always going to have opposing views on a situation." She turned her head to Steven at that, looking more worried than ever. "I really do hope I'm wrong, but something tells me I'm not."

That time she left, opting to avoid making things worse for as long as she could. Her wind caught up in the midday breeze that also tugged at her skirt until she took off in the direction of Beach City.

Steven sighed with a slight frown, taking a few moments to let that downed mood pass. Anything to help avoid Amazonite asking why Lapis had taken off, and all the baggage that would come from such a question. The look he got from Garnet made it clear she was going to ask those questions herself, but at a much better time.

When she noticed his approach, Pearl politely moved to Amazonite's left instead, leaving the ideal space open for him.

Actually being there next to her was very different from having to watch from across the room. It was much easier to make out all the blue marks on her Peridot-green skin now, and he could clearly tell which pair of eyes belonged to each Gem behind those gold glasses.

He could feel just how perpetually uneasy Amazonite was in spite of Gradie's forced smile. That in particular was unmistakable, Peridot's smiles were either the result of gleeful giggling or smug superiority. Gradie had smugness, but now he was beginning to see what Amethyst meant about her also being unsettled.

"Hey Steven."

"Hey."

Even with Garnet and Pearl there, he felt very awkward, not something he was used to. Talking to Lapis had only worsened things if anything, leaving all those doubts to collect in his mind.

He needed something to keep things moving. "So, how are you doing Amazonite? Aside from the obvious I guess."

Pearl stifled a pained groan.

Fortunately Amazonite didn't notice, simply tilting her head about while she pondered the question. "I mean, I'm still forgetting if I'm one Gem or two. Guess it takes more than a few minutes to figure that out huh Garnet?"

Garnet gave the most stoic of shrugs that Steven had ever seen from her.

"I think I'm starting to get the hang of the pronouns though. Not calling myself 'we' or 'they' when I'm 'I' and 'me'." She noticed the way Steven moved about uncomfortably, tilting her head again. "Peridot's holding up in here, Gradie's a little shaky but we're working on getting that under control. And there goes the 'we' again."

At that, Steven took a deep breath and made his best effort to appear reassured. Despite Amazonite's casual words, they were rather obviously forced to sound that way. And the last bit about Gradie only gave validation to Lapis' concerns.

The facade between them continued nonetheless.

"Glad to hear it. I was gonna ask if you felt like accompanying me about town for a while." He glanced to Pearl and Garnet to assure them that he now had a plan in mind. And the talk with the latter could wait a while after all. "It's a Crystal Gem custom to help let new fusions explore their identity. It'll just for a look around, we don't have to go meet the people if you're uncomfortable with that."

That brought on a longer pause. Of course, Gradie had only really seen the boardwalk and the Big Donut, Peridot only slightly more than that. There was a lot that neither of them had actually explored simply because neither of them had experienced any real desire to.

"Sure Steven. That sounds… fun."

Steven gave a very small nod, another look at the other two Gems, and then at the door. Distraction was key to ensure that things didn't decline more than they already were headed beneath the surface.

"It's not a long walk. There's lots to see, I think you'll enjoy it."

With his bravest smile on, he got up and led the way out, giving enough time for Amazonite to follow despite her hesitations.

When they were gone, Garnet rubbed the side of her head again, taking a quick look herself through a different array of sights.

"I'm not liking a lot of the outcomes Pearl. Steven knows there's something not right, and I'm certain Lapis does as well. We have to hope that he can make it work anyway."

"What else can we do other than give supportive advice and make them comfortable?"

Garnet hummed in thought, then glanced over at the warp pad.

"I'm going to have a chat with Lapis. She's holding something back." Upon noticing Pearl's disapproving look, she grumbled quietly. "Holding things back from others is not the way of the Crystal Gems. If she truly cares about Peridot and Gradie, she should understand this."

That look didn't leave Pearl's face as she lowered it with a slight sigh. "That's assuming she'll ever consider herself an actual Crystal Gem. I want to see Gradie and Peridot back and in good shape too, but alienating Lapis again is not going to help matters. Don't push too hard."

Garnet stood up in her usual manner of not leaning forward in the slightest, her arms folding up while she did so.

"I don't threaten anyone, Pearl. I simply lose respect for them."

And with that, she was on her way to the warp pad, and consequently what remained of the barn, where Lapis would inevitably return.

Pearl spent a long minute in silence once she was completely alone, simply gazing around the room until her eyes set on the ocean, at which point she sighed again.

"Why would she be uncomfortable fusing with Peridot? She can't have forgotten being Moonstone, surely?"

* * *

Greg was sweeping down the driveway of the carwash while simultaneously listening to the classics of his time when he noticed Amethyst plodding up the path. The headphones came off, softly blaring the music into the air, while the broom came to a stop in hand.

"Hey Amethyst, why the long face?"

She gave the biggest of sarcastic shrugs until she had stopped right at the threshold of the property, staring down at the dividing line for the longest time, and then grew bored enough to look up.

"Barn got trashed again, gotta fix it back up.

"Oh no! It's a good thing Andy isn't stopping by anytime soon then! What happened?"

Amethyst exhaled to make a point of how bothered she was, then found a spot on the curb to plonk herself onto for what felt like another long and laborious tale.

"Peridot was mucking around with something, it went wrong, and she ended up crashing into the barn. That's about all I know."

Greg hummed, eventually taking the chance with his back to sit down beside her, keeping the broom in hand. He finally stopped the music to keep things clear between them.

"Is she alright? Fixing the barn is one thing, but after what happened with Shungite I get worried about you Gems a lot more."

That made Amethyst scoff. "Oh yeah, she's totally alright. She just fused with Gradie, nothing serious."

"She what!?"

"Just like that. Peridot tries it once with Garnet, backs out, doesn't ever bring it up again for months and months, and then suddenly just a few weeks after a new Gem shows up she's fusing with her! The whole thing just feels off, but all everyone else wants to do is act all supportive and pretend it's just something completely harmless. But it's not!"

Greg had settled into a blank expression by then, not knowing what to make of the rant for quite a while. That and the questions that came to mind all ended up sounding pointless or worse in his head.

Not that it stopped him from asking eventually.

"How'd that end up happening anyway?"

Another shrug came. "I dunno, Garnet said something about explosions and such, so I guess Gradie was next to Peridot when it happened. She said it was just a big accident."

"And you don't think it was? I don't know if Gradie would cause that kind of accident. And I consider myself a decent judge of character."

Amethyst sighed at that, shrugging yet again. "No, no, I don't think she wanted it to happen. I just don't get why Peridot would let it happen. She wouldn't make that kind of mistake, she's too thorough with her work. There's something breaking down because of a missing bolt, and there's the barn getting blown up."

"Speaking of which…" Greg finally stood back up, albeit with a bit of tension in his back that made him nervous until he was properly upright. "We can talk on the way if you'd like. Gonna have to see what needs fixing after all."

After more grumbling, Amethyst got up as well. "Fine." When they both ended up standing there, she gave one last sigh, flicked her hair back and looked up at him. "Thanks for listening. I know the others would just say I'm overreacting, or that I'm jealous about not being first to fuse with her." She managed a very small smile at that. "We've still got a good thing going huh?"

Greg lightly clapped her shoulder, putting on a smile of her own. "Yeah, we're good. Ain't gonna let long gone Crystal Gems or giant agents from Homeworld get in the way of that are we?"

"Ain't ever gonna happen."

Seeing the more genuine smile from her lifted Greg's spirits as he walked her over to the van. "We'll have to wait for Lapis before we start cleaning up, I don't wanna mess with any of her meep-morps accidentally."

* * *

The barn looked desolate without the cloud of smoke and dust lingering in the air. There was a large swath of charred paint and wood where the platform had landed. Splinters had been driven into most of the walls, though thankfully none had breached the tank glass. It was still a disheartening sight nonetheless. Any higher, and they would have crashed through the pickup, causing far more damage to the barn, and more worryingly themselves.

More than they already had in forming Amazonite anyway.

It was almost fitting that she heard the warp pad activate at that moment, and didn't even need to turn around to know just who had come looking for her.

"Lapis, we need to talk."

Lapis closed her eyes for the longest time, then opened them before turning around, practically dragging her feet over the coarse dirt below.

"Do we, Garnet? Right now my home is in ruins, and quite frankly I'd rather be alone for a while."

Garnet adjusted her visor while stepping forward again, trying to remain in a passive posture. "It's become rather obvious you know more than you're letting on. Whatever it is, withholding it isn't right."

Briefly, Lapis felt ready to burst out in laughter. Instead, she settled for turning away again with a haughty scoff. For all of a moment as she clenched both hands back up and looked to Garnet again with a dark scowl.

"Say it again with a straight face, Garnet. Tell me of all Gems that keeping secrets is not right." She raised her finger a little more threateningly than she would have liked, but the sheer hypocrisy on display was incensing her to no end. "I haven't forgotten Garnet! You do not get to lecture me on withholding things! Not after what you were ready to do to keep me locked away! Not while you're still keeping secrets from Steven!"

Taking Pearl's advice, and some internal persuasion from Sapphire, Garnet remained a lot calmer than she otherwise might have been at that moment, especially when faced with such an accusatory tone.

"Lapis, this is not about Steven, or about you. If Peridot and Gradie are actually in danger, that's everyone's concern. We are not protecting Steven's innocence here, we are trying to save our friends."

The calm approach worked well enough, Lapis backing down from her aggressive position, but still remaining dead firm. She wasn't going to be manipulated into feeling like she was at fault for remaining quiet when she had every reason to.

"If I brought up my concerns with you first, my guess was that you'd just dismiss them out of hand. Because you can't help but see fusion as being good." Her expression softened a little, as she ended up grasping at her left arm with the opposing hand in a moment of feeling slightly apologetic. "Now that you've come to me, I don't have to worry about that. That doesn't mean I'm going to break Gradie's trust just like that though, so what I say stays between us. I'll settle things with her on my own terms."

That brought pause to Garnet, who slowly folded her arms at last. "So it's something she told you herself, not just insight?"

Lapis let out the longest sigh. Everything was brewing together in her head, all the subtext and underlying meanings, her assertions and assumptions, and most of all, her gut feeling. None of it was hard facts, except for what she had gathered about Gradie's tone of voice on the night of the dance. A tone that had really left its mark.

She made a cautionary look around their surroundings, then stepped closer still, finally making that key decision.

"It's to do with Star Lapis Lazuli…"

* * *

"And that's Suitcase Sam's store. I always wondered who he gets enough business from to run a store only for suitcases."

Amazonite nodded with a forced grin, glancing over the store in question for all of a second before looking to the hill leading out of Beach City again. As much as she wanted to placate Steven's desire to show her around…

"Only half of me knows what suitcases are, so I guess I can make a half guess and say that it's a cover story! People who are actually spies have those, right?"

Steven blinked, finding himself at a loss for words almost as much as whenever Onion got up to yet another scheme.

"I don't think Sam is a spy."

"I recall Peridot watching a movie about spies, and there were a lot of suitcases involved." She shrugged after that, humming in thought about the best way to get the 'tour' out of the town itself. The direct option is what she settled for.

Her lower right hand came to rest on his shoulder as she knelt down, beaming a wide smile while all four eyes focused down.

"Gradie hasn't gotten to see Rose's Fountain yet, think we could go look around there for a while? She misses Rose a lot after all, in the long lost mentor sense. And Peridot's only been there to watch Lapis lie in a fountain for a couple of days so..."

Steven looked back at her blankly. It seemed a little out of the blue for such a specific request, but there was also no reason why they couldn't go to please her. A distraction was a distraction, as he had told himself.

"Uh, sure. We'll have to walk back to the temple to warp over though, it's a bit of a long walk."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." Amazonite picked Steven up effortlessly with her four arms as she sprouted Gradie's ice wings from her back. "We can get right up to that pad with the gyroscopic dirt-removers and warp over from there."

They were off the ground before Steven could say anything. Considering what had led to her formation not even an hour earlier, it had him worried to no end. Even when they approached the temple, coming to a neat landing right on the pad itself, he felt very nervous about the experience. One thing was certain, it was not like flying with Lapis at all.

Amazonite set him down immediately, still beaming away with that uncomfortably wide grin. "Peridot has all the warp pad locations memorized, I can get us there don't you worry!"

Once again, Steven hummed in concern. "You're really excited to go there huh?"

She tilted her head about, the wide grin shrinking back into more of a smug look, resting her lower pair of hands on her hips. "Well, to be honest Steven, we're really just more in the mood for Gem stuff instead of looking around town right now." Her upper pair motioned for warp activation while she spoke, beaming them off towards the fountain pad by the time she had finished.

Steven's phone buzzed on arrival. The others would know where they were now at least, and that gave him more comfort than he cared to admit to himself. He didn't want to have to be comforted in that situation after all.

Amazonite was once again quick to move, stepping off the pad and gazing over the structure ahead of them with great awe.

"Wow, she really put this spring to good use! Used to be covered in pumps and tanks and Rose Quartz soldiers working for an Opal last time Gradie was here! Not the fusion kind mind you."

She dashed over to the wall surrounding the fountain itself, running her two right hands across its surface. "She remembers flying in with a big detonation charge and blowing half the operation up with it! All those Rose Quartz loyalists forced into their gems, all that machinery in ruins! We really taught them a lesson on not choosing the right side!"

All of that left Steven quieter than ever. The place had seemed so utterly serene and beautiful, a place of tranquility and healing. Built over what he was being led to believe was a legacy of destruction and mayhem. Orchestrated by his mother against her Gem kin. Yet another dot point on the list?

He soon looked down towards the ground, shifting his feet uncomfortably. "I guess that explains why it took a pipe being unblocked to make it work, if it's all just fed from a stream. The Gems didn't really tell me about when or how this was built, so I guess…"

His rambling ceased when he noticed Amazonite had stopped, and was whispering to herself. As if he needed any more reason to be worried.

"Like I said, just let me do the talking and we'll get out of this mess intact. But why can't I talk? Because you don't know the Crystal Gems like I do. You don't know what they'll do to us when they find out- Find out what? Find out what it is that Steven's waiting for me to blab because he thinks I haven't noticed he's listening…"

Steven froze in place as Amazonite leaned back off the wall, slowly turning her head. The wide grin had returned. Gradie's eyes were set on him, Peridot's beginning to dart about in an increasingly frantic manner as she approached him, step by step, clenching all four of her hands in pulses.

* * *

"I'm sorry Garnet. I truly do hope that I'm wrong, but we can't take that chance, not with Peridot at stake."

Garnet was completely silent as she moved past Lapis, approaching the barn wall with a growing look of anguish on her face. She rested her right arm against it, then her forehead on her arm, looking ready to break down in tears.

Her left hand formed the matching gauntlet.

"We couldn't have known… We knew all along! The Star Gems were all rotten! That was never a reason to- If we had formed earlier in the war, we could have saved Gradie! Saved so many others in her position! And she would have been corrupted with all the others. She's already corrupted by Homeworld thinking!"

After several laboured breaths, during which Lapis feared the barn was about to become even more ruined, the gauntlet finally dematerialized.

"She is not corrupted in any way. She is a victim, and we must treat her as such Ruby. She is not at fault for believing what Star Lapis forced her to believe."

It took a while longer for Garnet to recompose herself, reaching up beneath her visor to clear all her eyes before finally standing straight and taking a deep breath of her own.

"I can see why you wanted to keep things to yourself, Lapis. I'm sorry."

Lapis remained cold in expression, solely to keep from adding to the bounds of emotional turmoil already out in the open. It had been painful to see Garnet so utterly distressed.

"I get that you wanted them to enjoy fusion, but now that you know why it can't be that way, we have to get them separated as soon as possible. Is there any way to do it safely?"

Garnet had turned around by then, staring past as she heard the sound of a vehicle in the distance. "It's not quite as simple as having Steven heal them. Since there was no physical damage any of us could see, they're being held together on a mental level. But even the notion of being healed isn't going to undo those bonds that formed out of desperation."

She stopped when Greg and Amethyst pulled up in the van, Lapis having noticed their arrival by then and moved to look at the barn again, hoping to avoid the inevitable questions that would come.

Greg was confused by Garnet's presence there, and then mortified by the extent of the damage. Amethyst took one look at them both, and had a silent realization that her fretting about being called paranoid was all for nothing. They were on the same page as her after all.

It fell to Garnet to take charge of the matter, to both ensure that Gradie's secret remained that way for the moment, that they got to Amazonite in time to make efforts towards unfusing her, and that the cause of the crash that started it all was finally identified.

"Greg, Amethyst, Lapis and I are needed elsewhere. Be careful with moving the platform out of the barn, we should be back soon to help with repairs." She made a quick glance and nod to Lapis, who balled her fists in determination. "It's a sensitive matter, we will explain when the time is right."

Amethyst was storming over well before she was done explaining that she was going to explain later, throwing all caution to the wind.

"You're not keeping me out of the loop on this one. What did you find out about Gradie?"

That prompted Lapis to intervene. "Amethyst, please stay out of it for her sake. The less Gems that know-"

The warp pad activated, Pearl making her way up the hill shortly after, phone in hand.

"I just got an alert that someone warped from the washing machine pad to Rose's Fountain, but no-one warped to the washing machine first. Any idea who that could have been?"

All the Gems slowly looked to each other, Greg feeling particularly awkward as he felt out of the loop altogether, the standoff glare holding for several seconds until Lapis broke it at last.

"Amazonite is going to try and heal herself so she can unfuse. Garnet says that won't be enough. We've just run out of time to save her."

* * *

"Gradie… What's going on?"

Amazonite chuckled in a manner that could only be described as borderline maniacal. "I have to heal myself Steven. I can't stay like this. I'm not allowed to stay like this. If I remain Azurite for too long, I'll forget we're Star and Gradient. And then when they force us to unfuse, they'll take you away Gradient, and make you Mystic Lapis Lazuli. And you don't want that, do you?"

With a deep swallow, Steven began to raise his arm in preparation to summon the shield at a moment's notice. The discomfort had moved into a full on bad feeling.

"You're not Azurite, you're Amazonite, you're Peridot and Gradie. Star Lapis Lazuli is long gone."

"I am Azurite. I am in control, Gradient. You have no-" Amazonite twitched, her lower hands rushing up to her head and clutching at it at last. "Stop it Gradie! I won't! This is crazy! I'm not crazy Peridot! This is bad! Fusion is bad! Of course this is bad! That's what Star taught me! It's all bad bad bad!"

Her upper hands began gripping at the lower ones, trying to pull them off her head while both pairs of eyes began to move wildly.

"I hate fusion! I hate being Amazonite! I hate being Moonstone! I hate being Azurite! Steven get me out of her! No! We can't unfuse without healing! I don't care! I'd rather crack than be stuck with you insane clod! I'm not the clod you worthless Peridot!"

"Enough!"

Steven slobbered up both hands and leapt at them both, hoping to hit both gemstones with enough healing spit to end the struggle before Amazonite tore herself apart.

In the flurry, an upper hand lashed out as a reflex. It struck Steven clean on the cheek, knocking him back to the ground with a fierce sting that made him wince while his hands landed in the dirt, caking up with mud thanks to all the saliva he had just applied to them.

"I won't stand here and let them ruin me Rose! You said the Crystal Gems embrace all ways of thinking! Why do they hate me Rose!? Why do they hate me for being scared of fusion!? Why won't you stop them from turning me Mystic!"

By the time Steven had recovered, scrambling away first before standing, Amazonite was on her knees, clawing at herself as Peridot and Gradie waged an internal struggle that was boiling well out to the surface.

"You don't know what I've been through! I know what you're putting me through! I just want this to end! So do I! Then why are you fighting me? Because I won't let you hurt Steven!"

That time he summoned his shield, holding it defensively, but not cowering behind it. "That won't happen Peridot! You both have to calm down! Apatite is not here on Earth, no Gem is gonna be made Mystic! Whatever that means!"

By then, Amazonite had gone into complete disarray. Her face began to contort violently, shifting colours between green and blue, the eyes starting to phase through each other while the mouth and nose split into two. The arms started to contort through each other. Soon, Peridot's features had vanished from Amazonite's face altogether, leaving Gradie's twisted face in its place.

Steven recoiled as he noticed her face reemerging in Amazonite's belly as she glitched violently, her whole form being almost literally stretched to its complete limits by the two Gems forcing each other apart. Unfusing without the ease of reverting to soft light forms.

A sickening gurgle came from both faces, before Gradie tore herself free at last, flying straight into one of the cliff walls with a hard smack, only to dart off again immediately after in haphazard fashion while her wings struggled to take shape.

Peridot was left on the ground, back in the form she had been in before the whole mess, but very much unconscious.

He wasted no time in applying what saliva he could right to her gemstone, grimacing at the pained look that had been left on her face, before picking her up to carry her over to the fountain itself.

While lowering her into the water, he felt his phone buzz right before the warp pad activated, signalling the arrival of all the others.

"Steven! Amazonite!"

Rather than turning to face them, he instead chose to continue staring at Peridot while she rested just beneath the surface, hoping that the ugly process had not taken too much of a toll. A bitter feeling in his stomach made him feel just a hint of satisfaction that Gradie wasn't receiving similar healing after what she had done, as much as he hated himself for that.

It was both Garnet and Greg that approached him at last, a hand on each shoulder from them both as they looked over Peridot.

"You okay little man?"

Steven nodded solemnly.

"Steven, where is Gradie? And just how exactly did the two of them unfuse?"

He could practically feel all eyes on him at that moment. After a breath, and a lot of thought, he settled for one word to each question.

"Gone. Badly."

* * *

" _Commence report,_

 _In spite of my original assertions that the described quaternary objective was both superfluous and a grossly ineffective use of time, the end result has proven to be a resounding success. Through convenient means provided by none other than P_ _eridot Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG, I successfully initiated a fusion between said rogue Gem, and the off-colour Lapis Lazuli designated 'Gradient' by the Apatite in your current service._

 _Said fusion ended in satisfactory destruction of relations between said Gems. Preying on history of Gradient with Star Lapis Lazuli 1X 19 was a contributing factor, however given time for further study, observation of renegade Gems and determination of ideal combinations for maximum destabilization, I believe potential can yet be found for destroying Crystal Gems through unwanted fusions._

 _As I have no doubt the irony of this attack proves amusing to you, my Diamond, I accompany this report with the assurance that my efforts are now directed towards furthering quaternary objective's progress. I would also forward assurance that Apatite's plan is almost ready to put into action, and will signal the commencement of said plan as per her instructions._

 _End report."_

Shungite remained expressionless as she sent that report off to Elysium, turning her attention to the device resting on her lap. A black disc that was made of material designed to flex over the shape of any gemstone it came to rest on, with four nasty pincers on the back to provide a secure hook into the form of the target Gem once contact had been made.

The black screen closed in around that twisted machination.

"Soon."

And then popped altogether.

* * *

(Edit: Just to be clear, I will actively avoid spoilers from the latest special. What happened has no direct impact on my plans for Calling Collect From Homeworld, Elysium and The Carbon Army however may include this development to the relevant characters. And yes, there are two sequel stories to come...)


	9. Fusion Joke

_Star Lapis Lazuli! I won't let you silence me any longer!_

"And that's what happened."

Connie blinked several times, opened and then closed her mouth at least twice, glanced out the window, swallowed, and finally tried and fail to speak before finally finding something that she felt could come out right.

"What do we do?"

"We help her!"

The exclamation from Pearl while she continued pacing the walkway in front of the kitchen area caught everyone off guard. She was clearly frantic and barely keeping it together.

It was worryingly not that unusual to see from her, and yet it was also worse than usual. As much as Steven didn't want to ask his own question, he felt he had to.

"Pearl, why are you blaming yourself for this?"

"Because who else is there to blame? I'm the one who knows her best! Thought she did anyway." The sad realization made her stop, her face resting against her hand while she sighed. "And I didn't see this coming at all."

All three of the went quiet for while, Pearl actually finding it within herself to bear sitting down to calm down instead of keeping herself agitated with pacing. The sight of both Steven and Connie with far more levelled heads was a comfort in its own way.

"The most I knew was that Gradie had some disagreements with other Crystal Gems, but by then the war was becoming global so they all went to fight separate battles and encampments anyway. I don't understand why she thought she was in danger from the others, especially that Rose and I wouldn't resolve any disputes peacefully."

Steven glanced down, not so much to look at his gemstone as it was to just show he was thinking. "She didn't tell you about being Azurite at all? And who was Moonstone?"

That made Pearl pause with a slight grit of her teeth, her fingers starting to drum together until she eventually let out a longer sigh, casting her own eyes down with a slight look of shame.

"Moonstone was what we called ourselves when we fused. She was beautiful, with flowing hair and a cream dress that glittered blue in moonlight, waltzing across the seas until dawn." Her drumming fingers finally meshed together in a hard clench. "A fusion I pressured her into without even realizing she wanted no part of it."

The anguish that the admission brought to the surface was all too clear, but with that first step out of the way she felt she had to continue. "I thought she was simply used to Homeworld ideology, that a little experience with fusion was all that she needed to understand the joys that being a new individual could bring. I never for a moment considered-" She stopped herself with a sharp breath, looking back to the pair. "This is why I blame myself Steven. I didn't actually ask her why she was hesitant. I never tried to ask questions, to make her feel like I was a confidant, like I so often was to Rose. I just assumed, and that made things worse."

The point sank in for a while, for Steven especially. All he could think about by then was just how hesitant Gradie was right before Peridot showed off her platform. He had made the exact same assumption, and yet somehow it was the intervention that lead to an even worse outcome.

Connie took it in a different way, eventually clenching her hands and standing up in her confident way. "We need to make things better then, before she hurts herself. The best we can do for now is try to assure her that she's no longer in danger from anyone. We have to close the wound before it can begin to heal."

The clear and determined statement that put everything ahead of them into a simple plan made Pearl smile at last, even if it was small. "Thank you Connie."

Steven hummed in thought again. His first thought was of the previous times Peridot wheeled over a whiteboard to formulate a plan, but since she was at the barn under the care of Lapis while Greg and Garnet worked on restoring it meant that wasn't going to happen. And he didn't blame her in the slightest for wanting to be left out of the matter.

"Where exactly would she go? And what do we actually say when we find her?"

Pearl stood up again, having thought about the first answer at least, and already not liking that. The second was still beyond her.

"If she's reliving her time under Star Lapis Lazuli's tyranny, then she probably went to The Siphon. If she's past that, and is reliving her time as a Crystal Gem, she'd be at one of the old coastal encampments."

Both Connie and Steven looked to each other, the former speaking up after. "I've read through Buddy's Journal, he didn't mention anything that sounds like a siphon."

Pearl nodded in a way to indicate she was about to explain just that. "Rose led an attack herself on The Siphon later in the war, and we were so successful in driving Homeworld out of the area that they destroyed it from orbit out of spite. The Siphon itself was designed to drain and collect all Earth's water to be used as needed, and thus all the Lapis Lazuli were based there."

She turned her lips in thought of her own. "I do wish I had taken you two to see it before. A lot of terrible things went on in the war, but that was a significant Crystal Gem victory. Under other circumstances, it would be nice to see a reminder that Homeworld isn't unbeatable." Another hum came as she thought it over further. "The warp pad was also destroyed in the bombardment. I'd ask Lapis to fly over from the next nearest one, but again, circumstances as they are…"

"We can take Lion there, I'm sure he won't mind. More time to search for Gradie, in case she hurts herself again."

Pearl did mind, though she kept herself from letting out anything more than a grimace at the thought. The cause was far too much to be bothered by such a trivial matter in the end. "I do hope that she doesn't, Steven. But now I'm not sure of anything."

* * *

 _I don't care if no-one from Homeworld will listen! I don't care if the Diamonds shatter me for this!_

The Big Donut chime brought Sadie up from reshelving the display case, ready for another regular customer.

To her surprise, it was Garnet who walked up, all by herself no less.

"Morning Sadie."

"Good morning Garnet. Uh, what can I get for you today?"

Garnet hummed quietly, glancing over the display while she recounted the exact request in her head. "A six donut variety box, a cup of coffee, and two water bottles."

"Huh, busy day I take it?"

"Greg is repairing the barn. Again. Refreshments are needed."

Sadie blinked several times, then walked over for a box to store those six donuts in. "Again? Did Shungite come and tear it down or something?"

"Not directly."

That made Sadie go quiet. The sound of donuts being placed on cardboard had never been so tense.

By the time she returned to the counter with the box ready, Garnet had obtained both water bottles and the cup of coffee for herself, setting the latter down to hand over the money provided by Greg for it all.

Sadie finally found her breath between shudders while opening the register. "Are we safe?"

Garnet thought about that question long and hard, many times feeling ready to give an answer, only to take it back on reconsideration. So many factors to consider, in all the situations, past and potential.

She gathered the bottles into her arm, picking up the coffee with her left hand, the donuts with her right.

"The Crystal Gems will protect Beach City from Shungite. That's all I can say."

It was a poor answer, but it was also an honest one.

As hard as the reality was to take, the intent behind it was inversely comforting. Sadie simply nodded and did her best to smile. "We know you're all doing your best. Who knows? Maybe she won't come back here after all."

"That's something we can all hope for."

* * *

 _I won't be your victim any longer! I won't let you keep abusing my form, my being like this!_

The leap from just outside the beach house to the outer perimeter of The Siphon was shorter than Steven expected. Usually it took a few seconds to get anywhere on Lion's back, that one had been closer to near-instant travel between the two.

What was also instant was his reaction to the sight of the ruined facility.

Just as described, not a single structure had remained intact. In the middle of dense jungle was a large swath of scarred land that even thousands of years could not heal. Broken and decayed Gem technology stuck out of the rubbled ground all over, giving the whole place the look of an old scab on the otherwise pristine landscape. It was ugly, and refused to go away.

"Steven, Connie, be careful with where you step."

Pearl was first off Lion's back, walking past without a glance at him to scout ahead carefully. It wasn't long before she was able to point at her reason for caution.

In the middle of the scar was a giant hole in the ground, ringed by a burst-end pipe that seemed to extend down forever. It had not been destroyed from orbit.

"The Siphon. It doesn't go down nearly as far as The Cluster, but you still can't hear the bottom of it by dropping a rock in."

Steven swallowed as he drew close enough to look and no further. Despite being a literal hole in the ground, there was a definite menace to it. As if the darkness looming within it would rise up and snatch him off the ground to drag him to the depths below.

He didn't like the notion of Gradie having fallen, or even flown into it at all. There was no coming back from it.

Connie in the meantime had clambered up some rubble to get a better view of the scar overall. "Huh, I guess this place is too far into deep jungle for Buddy to have come across then. I don't think he came across the colony ship where the Centipeedles are either."

Pearl shrugged, starting to wander around the place on her own, still giving The Siphon a wide berth.

"We regretted not going after this place while Gradie was still with us. At the time, the sentiment was just to help her get some satisfaction for the way Homeworld had mistreated her as an off-colour. I do wonder how things would have been different if she had to confront Star Lapis Lazuli herself that day."

At that precise moment, the ground began to shake, and a deep roar bellowed out from The Siphon.

All three quickly looked to each other, then at Lion.

"Run!"

A great pillar of water erupted from The Siphon before they even got close to Lion, who by then had prepared to leap towards them for rescue.

" _Stop! Do not attack!_ "

Surprise at the booming voice that had spoken made the four stop in place, Lion blinking in confusion while the others turned around.

All around them, the gushing water was spreading out into globules that soon took shape, forming buildings where there were ruins, and soon Gems in all the spaces amongst them. More shockingly, they were very defined and detailed, to the point that when everything was assembled, the only thing betraying that they were objects of water was their colour alone.

By then, they could make out several of the Gem types by their body shape. Various Quartzes, some Peridots, Onyxes, an Emerald and her Ruby entourage.

Three Lapis Lazulis gazing towards a hill further on in the distance. And standing at their head was the ghostly shape of Star Lapis Lazuli herself.

Atop the hill stood another Lapis Lazuli, different enough from those in front of The Siphon for each of the three to conclude who it was.

A definite chill took Steven when Star Lapis stepped forward. She towered over the other Lazulis by two heads, pushed further by the wicked high heels that looked terribly uncomfortable were they to be worn by a human.

Her outfit was unlike any he had seen amongst Gem kind, taking the form of cloth looped through a diamond-shaped ring that sat over her stomach, the cloth circling back over her shoulders and behind her back to tie into her skirted belt, the lower loops at the front doing the same. More mesmerizing, and mildly unnerving were the wafts of hair that floated about her head, defying gravity altogether, as if they were lengths of kelp in the ocean.

The deep blue eyeshadow made her glare that much more menacing as she pointed directly at Gradie on the hill.

" _You are out of place, Gradient._ "

" _No! I am not listening to you anymore! Every Gem here is going to hear what you've been doing Star! You are finished!_ "

* * *

 _You don't control me! Not anymore! I get to make a choice about fusing with you! And I say no!_

Shungite's eyes flicked open. Her hand went to the communicator immediately, waving over it until it brought up a visual link to the matching communicator on Elysium.

Apatite smiled.

" _How are things progressing?_ "

"Gradient is distracting them with memories pulled from her past, just as you predicted. The rest are preoccupied with repairs."

" _Good. Begin making your way over to Gradient's location. Once your assets have begun their task, ensure that she and those with her stay to listen what I have to say to them. I shall inform White Diamond that we are about to begin Phase Two._ "

Shungite nodded silently, though her typically blank expression betrayed a hint of indignation, something that Apatite caught onto.

" _What is it? Have you really begun to develop sympathy for these renegades?_ "

That made Shungite frown in her menacingly minimal way. "I was ordered here to observe, study and perform experiments at my own discretion. This directly interferes with my established plans."

" _Your plans will not be affected in the long run. White Diamond has made her priorities clear, she wishes for me to proceed with things for a while._ " She smiled at that in a wicked way, revelling in the chance to wield her authority. " _Try not to be disgruntled, Shungite, it's nothing personal after all._ "

The communicator closed back down, leaving Shungite in the dark once more. Had the thought struck her, she might have smiled at how fitting that was.

The only actual thought on her mind was duty to her Diamond, carrying out the wishes, fulfilling the best interests of Homeworld. And if that meant stamping on her own progress, so be it.

* * *

" _I don't care what the Diamonds say about the Crystal Gems! I don't care what you say about anything! You kept calling me the biggest embarrassment to all Lapis Lazulis, well here I am Star! Meet the first Lapis Lazuli of the Rebellion! I will make sure you lose this war if I have to be the last Crystal Gem fighting to the very end!_ "

Pearl's hand went to her face in utter shame, as if it wasn't complete enough.

"This was all we heard of her speech. We couldn't make out what was said before. If we had come a little sooner…"

Steven was ready to reach for Pearl's hand to give what comfort he possibly could when a cackle broke the moment altogether.

Star Lapis Lazuli had laughed the whole thing off.

" _Very droll Gradient. Now, get down here before I have you pulverized._ "

" _I won't Star! Crystal Gems do not take orders from Homeworld clods!_ "

Star stepped forward, not noticing that Emerald had clenched her fist, and was looking quite maddened by that stage.

" _You've only embarrassed yourself even more dear. From the moment you emerged, you were inferior. Your words are as worthless as the gemstone that can't even keep itself upright on your throat. You should be glad that Blue Diamond was gracious enough to allow you to live at all, and more so that she gave you to me as a plaything. You are nothing more than an amusing toy after all._ "

By then, Pearl had clenched her fist as well, having forgotten just how awful it was to hear Star's incredibly demeaning tone of voice.

"Pearl, is this when you and mom-"

"No, there was an unexpected development first."

She motioned a hand towards some nearby underbrush, pointing out the two vague shapes of herself and Rose, presumably not as well defined thanks to Gradie only having guessed where they were at that moment. There was still no sign of her actual presence in any of it.

" _Fine, if you won't come down… Prasiolites!_ "

Two of the Quartz soldiers stepped forward, ready to march up the hill and bring Gradie down by force, only for Emerald to sweep in front of them with a defiant wave of her hand, marching right over to Star Lapis Lazuli.

" _Is this how you decide to train your subordinates? Through needless abuse? I thought better of you Star Lapis Lazuli!_ "

The demeaning tone was replaced by an intimidating one as Star turned her attention to Emerald, the wafts of hair starting to circle around her face in a threatening way.

" _Know your place, Emerald. Your kind don't get to think about matters beyond your scope. And your scope begins and ends with your ship, and your meaningless rabble you call a guard troupe!_ "

The Rubies following Emerald all grew more than a little indignant at their Emerald being treated so poorly. The insults against themselves were meaningless, any feelings they had could only ever be for their charge after all.

Emerald herself remained steadfast, gesturing at the Quartzes starting to move closer to keep their distance with the gemstone on her right palm.

" _You think that flying without use of a ship makes you special, better than us? I'm sure Blue Diamond would love to hear such an opinion from your own mouth!_ "

In that time, the Prasiolites had rushed up the hill and grabbed Gradie before she could fly off, starting to haul her down the mountain. The other Quartzes by then were ready to take Emerald and her Rubies as well, all the Onyxes having fled the immediate area out of fear.

It was then that the two struck. Rose cleaved through the two Prasiolites with her sword in a clean swing, freeing Gradie as soon as they deformed. Pearl landed between them and the main gathering, spear at the ready.

The non-water Pearl drew a sharp breath as she felt the exhilaration of that moment again. Gradie's point of bringing her back to that moment was starting to become clear.

" _Homeworld doesn't belong here Star Lapis Lazuli! Earth will be free, and we will see it so!_ "

Star Lapis rolled her eyes, physically shoving Emerald out of her way as she strode towards Pearl.

" _You really think she'll be any use to you? Please, you don't know her like I do. And when this pathetic rebellion is crushed, I will laugh at-_ "

She hissed as her hair whipped down to block an energy blast aimed directly for her back, having been fired right from Emerald's palm. Her heels drove into the dirt as she span around, ready to strike her down on the spot for that insolence. The other Quartzes had grabbed her.

Rose and Gradie began rushing down the hill to aid their potential ally, Pearl remaining poised for a critical strike.

" _How dare you fire-_ "

Many of the Quartzes were knocked aside as Super Ruby roared and punched several of them away, ready to stamp down on Star Lapis Lazuli while Emerald fired on her remaining oppressors and bolted for safety amongst Rose and the others.

In a flash of light, Star slashed across the air above her, drawing out a cutting wave of water that tore right through Super Ruby's form, causing all four component gemstones to fall to the ground in a shower of red dust. A look of malice had crossed her face when she turned back to the four. The leader of the Crystal Gems, her second, and two of her latest recruits.

" _Do anything to my Rubies and-!_ "

" _What, Emerald? What will you do?_ "

In a spiteful act, Star Lapis twisted her fingers, the wafts of her hair lashing up and firing icy spears at each Ruby gemstone, shattering them right through the middle.

The effect on her was devastating, nearly much as so for the others. Rose looked down in a moment of shame, then back up at Star, her shield now perched over her forearm.

" _We will mourn their sacrifice, Star Lapis Lazuli. No-one will mourn yours._ "

The shock of all the water structures collapsing into puddles startled Steven, who immediately went to Pearl for comfort. Connie was just as shaken, rubbing at her head as she tried to comprehend what she had just witnessed.

Reliving the memory simply made Pearl remember just how painful an experience it was. To gain two Crystal Gems, and to have lost four before they even had the chance to decide.

And yet, the central column of water remained.

It took a little while for Steven to catch on, releasing the hold on Pearl at last to make his way a little closer, staring up at it. Just as he had met Gradie that day on the Beach City boardwalk, she was there in front of them from the moment they heard the rumbling water below.

"Gradie, please, don't run away again. We understand why you're so upset."

The pillar of water began to condense down, until splashing on the ground in front of The Siphon, leaving Gradie standing there once more, looking just as she always did.

"That was the start of it, Steven. If you don't remember being Rose Quartz, then you don't know the other half of it." When her gaze turned to Pearl, it was with a deep sadness that she was barely containing within herself. "You don't remember the Crystal Gems wanting to recruit an Apatite, so she could make me Mystic. Because they thought I was a Homeworld spy, because I found it sickening to see them fusing in front of me. Their feelings mattered, and mine didn't."

* * *

"Hey hey, look who's back!"

The greeting from Greg was about as warm as the reception got for Garnet, walking up the path to the barn to set the donuts and water in the back of the van. The coffee she had downed not long after leaving The Big Donut.

It hadn't helped her feel that much better.

"Sorry for taking so long."

"Eh, don't worry about it. Not that hot today after all." The crack of the bottle cap being unscrewed was still a satisfying sound nonetheless, while the relief of taking the first gulp of still-cold water was equally satisfying in its own way.

While his assertion that it was indeed an ideal day for hard labour, that was the only positive thing he could find in the whole mess, quite literally. The barn was still in terrible shape, Peridot was still silently working at her laptop, Amethyst was bordering on frustration every time she moved another pile of rubble out of the barn, and Lapis simply didn't have the heart to help yet. It was days of work ahead at the very least, and that was solely counting the physical damage.

"I'm sorry this happened Greg. I should've warned Peridot to be more careful with her projects. We can't take risks when Shungite is able to stay ahead of us on secret plans. Somehow."

The moment for relaxing passed, moving Greg into the consolation stage. It was quite possibly the first and last time he would ever be the one to give Garnet support.

"Building a hover platform sounds innocent enough. Can't go through life expecting Shungite to manipulate every single thing we do into causing another freak accident."

"We have to! She's got powers none of us understand, Homeworld's resources at her fingertips..."

She regretted raising her voice at Greg of all people immediately, but in her moment of stress the most she could do was walk away and try to pace it out of her system. None of them were in good shape, and with all the Gems constantly looking to her for leadership…

That didn't deter Greg, who stuck to his intent and followed after her. "Garnet, I understand what you're going through. We can beat her, drive her off back to Homeworld. We'll be cautious, but we won't stop doing what makes us happy out of fear."

Garnet took that breath, letting Sapphire's perpetual calm roll through, then turned her head towards him. "I've had to tell the others that so many times. It's nice hearing it for a change."

With a bit of initial hesitation, Greg slowly reached up to pat her shoulder. "Anytime Garnet. It's what I'm here for."

They both looked to the barn itself when Lapis walked out, looking quite concerned.

"Garnet, can you come check this warp pad location? It wasn't in the network a few hours ago according to Peridot, and its just been used."

Garnet began marching towards the barn immediately, looking back to Greg. "Double check and make sure Peridot's defence drones are out of commission."

"You got it."

After stepping past the charred crater in the floor, she moved more slowly, approaching Peridot at a gentle pace. She was still hunched over her laptop, but the way her tablet was positioned made it clear she had placed it to the side for Garnet to see specifically.

Even before picking it up, a bad feeling began to swell in her. Close to the colony ship ruins, but not in the right spot.

It was only after she had picked the tablet up that Peridot spoke up. "Let me guess, you never bothered to reactivate that warp pad, and it was severed from the network. My robonoids should have repaired it when they first arrived otherwise."

Garnet had to stop herself from damaging the pad while she gripped it firmly, her teeth starting to grit.

"The Siphon warp pad was destroyed. It can't have been repaired. It's gone."

Peridot looked up at her at last, still blank in expression. "It said it originated from the Temple."

All three of Garnet's eyes closed in on it more, searching for any future detail related to the pad. None were coming up at all.

Her head lifted back up in a fierce jolt as she nearly dropped the tablet altogether.

"It's a fake signal. Shungite is there now."

There was no attempt from Peridot to catch the tablet as it slipped from Garnet's hand to the floor, thankfully angled just enough to land on the melted rug that she had been sitting on. Both Gems were on their feet and rushing over to the warp pad outside, soon joined by Lapis.

"Amethyst! We need you on this now!"

The shouting had drawn Greg's attention as well by then. Garnet stopped just long enough to explain while waiting for Amethyst to run up from where they had dumped the debris.

"What's happening now?"

"Shungite's on the move, she might be going after Gradie. Take Peridot's tablet, keep an eye out for any other warp pad activity. Call Pearl or Steven, we'll go get them now."

He couldn't help the dumbfounded look at how swiftly things had changed, watching as all four Gems warped away, and remaining there for a while after before finally heading back to the barn. When he picked up the tablet, it only seemed to reinforce the notion that he really couldn't do all that much to help them.

"Hang on a minute, who's warping from Mask Island to the Galaxy Warp?"

* * *

"Gradie, we would never have allowed that. You know how much the both of us trusted you."

Gradie shrugged in a completely fed up way. "You were still going to try and recruit an Apatite. I could tell. The crowning achievement of the Crystal Gems, turning a White Diamond elite against Homeworld. It would have only ever been a matter of time before she got to me."

"Gradie-"

"No. No excuses. It's five thousand years too late for excuses Pearl. The Apatites are evil, the Star Gems are evil, Shungite is evil. All Gem unique to White Diamond's court. If you and Rose actually believed you ever turned one, then I was right and you were both thicker than the crust of this planet in your heads."

Steven and Connie both looked to Pearl, who gazed back at Gradie with an unwavering expression, eventually sighing when she found the right answer to give.

"We never even got close to one, apart from one ship battle that ended badly for us. We fought a few Star Gems, but they all fled the planet. You were right about them, none of them were remotely interested in betraying the Diamonds."

For the first time since reappearing, the edge on Gradie's posture faded just a little. That tiny reassurance that she had at least made some kind of impact, despite how much it felt as if she had contributed nothing in the end. Still just a metaphorical drop against the many many issues still built up at the back of her mind.

"Did Rose ever try healing a Mystic Gem? Or were they lost causes, just like the corrupt and the shattered?"

Yet again, Pearl glanced down, chewing her lip in regret. "We never rescued one. Sometimes we heard rumours of one being present on a ship in orbit, but we just didn't have the resources to mount that kind of rescue."

"Guess you've got yet another miracle to perform Steven." She turned her head to glare right at him. "Why not let out all my deep dark secrets while I'm feeling completely exposed as a helpless victim of fusion, mm? Or are you going to stop me from explaining just what it means to be a Mystic gem Pearl?"

With a tighter lip bite, Pearl finally shook her head.

Gradie gave another shrug, glancing between Steven and Connie while she stepped closer. "If you're considered 'too good' or 'too bad' for shattering, you get shipped off to one of White Diamond's colonies. They take you into a room, an Apatite looks you over, asks some questions, and makes a final judgement. If she decides to proceed, she points her Gem at yours, shines a bright on it, and you glaze over. And poof, you're just another braindead Mystic gem."

The description alone sounded so sinister, and yet professional, which made it even worse. And the implication behind it all only fuelled that nightmarish impression of just what exactly she meant about it all.

In the middle of it all, Pearl's phone buzzed four times in rapid succession, as did Steven's. Both were too preoccupied to take notice.

"Braindead? As in…"

"Gone, wiped, empty. There's being broken into many pieces, and there's being twisted into a monstrous form. And then there's having everything that makes you an individual snatched away, so you're left a drooling rock with a big grin and colourful eyes that says yes to everything and plods along until you run into a wall. And that's what some of the Crystal Gems wanted to turn me into."

"Not the ones who made the final decisions. Certainly not if you had told us why you were so uncomfortable around the fusions. We would have kept it secret and stopped the arguments, we just needed to know."

Gradie turned around, gazing back at the remains of The Siphon, taking in the sight of that victory she so desperately had wanted all those years ago. Achieved without her even knowing about it, without the chance to become involved.

"It shouldn't have been that way. The Crystal Gems should have just been more considerate. I wasn't going around telling them not to fuse, I was just looking away when they did or trying to avoid the subject but that was enough. What about now, Pearl? What do all of you think of me?" She closed her eyes and let out the longest exhale, her arms slipping to her sides after being folded for so long. "I'm still a victim of fusion, only now Shungite pulled the strings. When does it end Pearl? When do I stop feeling afraid of it?"

"Interesting choice of words."

All of them looked to a dense part of the tree line where the worryingly familiar voice had come from. Even Lion was visibly disturbed, growling while backing up towards the group.

Not long after, the iconic black pyramid emerged from the top of the trees as Shungite stepped into the open, her flute already in hand and poised just in front of her lips, ready to play at an instant. She was taking no chances that time.

Pearl motioned for Steven and Connie to move towards Lion instinctively. "What do you want Shungite? You followed us here, not the other way around!"

Shungite noticed the pair moving and immediately glared at them with a threatening draw of breath on the flute mouthpiece.

"Go for the sword and I will do this to you, Connie."

She played a single note, vaguely similar to the pain-inducing one, but horrifyingly different in effect.

Gradie began to scream as her left arm dissolved into water right before her eyes, splashing to the ground in a clear puddle.

Once satisfied her point was clear, Shungite took another step forward. "Those on Elysium had the good sense to alert me to your unique properties, Gradient. Water solubility, a distinct advantage when wanting to hide in water itself, and yet so easily exploitable."

Pearl moved up to pull Gradie back with the others, still ready to defend them all if needed. "Answer me Shungite! We've left you alone! We've held up our end of the deal! Why are you coming here and terrorizing us after you caused that accident?"

Shungite rolled her eyes, flexing a pinkie over one of the holes. "I did warn you about what I saw in Gradient's mind, the forced fusion was simply the first of many experiments I plan to conduct. However, plans change, and so do orders."

The flute closed back in when she noticed the rest of the Crystal Gems rushing over the hill, making sure all of them saw the situation while they barreled down to join Pearl and her lot.

"Good, now that you're all here, I can finally end my part in this exercise. As much as I would rather observe the fallout of the failure of Amazonite, White Diamond has seemingly changed her mind and handed matters over to another Gem for the time being. She's eager to meet you all."

While Shungite reached into her shoulder fins, Lapis was the first of the arrivals to inspect Gradie's missing arm, something that drew shocked looks from the others. Gradie herself was trying very hard not to think about the new depths of powerlessness she had found herself at.

Garnet's teeth remained firmly clenched while she tried to formulate a plan. "Steven, Connie, I want you two in Lion's mane at the first chance-"

She was cut off by Shungite hurling the communication device across The Siphon to a few steps in front of them, her hand immediately returning to the flute to ensure they remained compliant.

The device itself opened up once again, this time to form a much larger screen in front of them all.

Apatite was still central on it, smiling yet again at the sight of the eight Crystal Gems in front of her, quite literally all that was left.

" _Well well, the black shard came through after all. I'm almost surprised._ "

Gradie's remaining hand balled up as she grew infuriated at the smugness that hadn't changed at all about Apatite, despite all those passing years.

It seemed she was recognized in turn. " _Gradient dear, how have you been? You're overdue for your next appointment by several thousand years, how very tardy of you._ "

"Don't speak to me you flaming, worm-ridden, mud-dripping crumbling clod!"

Despite the deep tension between them, Peridot still found it within herself to snicker just a little at the apt insult. Small victories.

" _I will speak to whomever I like, Gradient._ "

Her two eyes scanned over the group, tutting at Pearl, rolling at Amethyst, and ignoring Lapis altogether. Garnet was her next focus.

" _The Ruby-Sapphire fusion, yes. You've changed since the war, but there's enough similarity between your various degenerate forms to identify you._ "

The urge to smash the communicator mid sentence grew stronger than ever for her. "You got off lightly Apatite! Next time I won't settle for punching your eyes in!"

" _Careful, you might hit my gemstone, and shattering me would hardly set a good standard for your precious little hybrid, would it?_ "

That brought her attention down to Steven, who glared back up at the screen defiantly.

"I'm not afraid of you Apatite!"

" _Good, because whatever they may have told you I am not out to make my usual rounds. Quite the contrary in fact, I offer something of a treaty. Your services as a subject of observation, and in exchange White Diamond will not tell Yellow that you somehow neutralized the Cluster, or that you are in fact not on Homeworld as she still believes. And you wouldn't want her coming to Earth, would you Rose Quartz?_ "

Steven looked to every one of the Crystal Gems in turn, seeing deep concern every time. When it came to Connie, it was an expression he hoped to never see again. The same one he had to remember right before Aquamarine left Earth with him as her prisoner.

That was a choice not to be taken twice.

"No deal Apatite! I'm not leaving Earth again! You can threaten us all you like! But I am not getting on any Homeworld ship, not again!"

" _Hmph. If you insist. Be warned, that my appetite for knowledge will not be sated anytime soon._ "

The screen closed down immediately after that, collapsing right down into the original double-pyramid it had been.

Shungite was nowhere to be seen.

When the oppressive mood passed, the first to react was Amethyst with an eyeroll and groan.

"That was bad even by bad guy pun standards."

"Oh ha ha Amethyst!" Gradie span around, ready to blow off at Amethyst were it not for Lapis holding her back. "Go on! Say something else that's funny! How about 'Gee Gradie, looks like you could use a hand!'"

"Gradie, you'll get it back once Shungite's note wears off, this is not the time-"

Garnet clapped her hands together with enough enhanced force to make some of the pebbles on the ground shake from it. That stopped the deluge of frantic chatter before it started quite well.

"Apatite is coming, we need to prepare for that. Until Lars and the Off-Colours can get their ship battle ready, it's up to us to defend Earth. And that starts with working out just how Shungite is able to stay ahead of us. We put her out of the picture, and Apatite loses a significant advantage."

While the chatter began to rise up between all the Gems, Steven stepped out of the group towards Lion, soon followed by Connie.

"I don't get it. Why wouldn't have White Diamond told the others what she knew by now? And why doesn't she want to see me shattered like them? This isn't making sense."

Connie moved past to brush over Lion's mane gently, to which he yawned. "We don't really know what White Diamond is like though, do we? Shungite definitely doesn't behave like other Homeworld Gems. Though I guess Apatite does, sorta…"

Lion slowly turned his head to gaze at Steven in that typical Lion way. Steven stared back.

"What? There's no point going to Lars for help right now. I'm not hiding from Apatite either."

The stare continued.

Connie took a turn at trying to decipher what was going on. "Lion, you did hear how Garnet fought that exact Apatite and didn't even manage to poof her right? I don't think Stevonnie with a sword and shield is going to be enough."

"The sword might not have taken Shungite down, but then Apatite isn't fusion size tall. We can take her."

He broke the stare with Lion to think more. Even with that in mind, there was a nagging feeling that Apatite wouldn't risk such a bold and direct confrontation unless she knew she was ready to take them on.

"Garnet, Pearl. What would happen if we used the Laser Light Cannon on Shungite?"

The two looked over him with quickly shocked expressions, both unsure of what to make of the both sudden and seemingly extreme question.

"I don't want to think about what would happen! The cannon was designed to take down Gem warships in the war, not Gems themselves!"

Garnet, as always, opted to take the more level-headed answer. "A full blast would have to destroy her form, regardless of her resistance to the sword. It would also damage her Gem severely, possibly even crack it, just from the amount of energy channeled into her form. I don't think we're at that stage yet."

Despite knowing better, Gradie still rolled her eyes. "Try having your arm disintegrated and then answer that question Garnet."

"That's enough Gradie. What Shungite did to you these past few days does not justify-"

"Here we go, just as I expected. Here's when the fusion tries to shut down every idea I put out there!"

She made ready to take off again, only for Lapis to grab her hand, and soon Steven the other, neither wanting to see her fly off again.

Lapis was the one to try her hand at assurance. "Calm down. Shungite isn't the biggest problem right now, Apatite is."

"Apatite isn't the one who's been taking control of my stuff and manipulating the tracking system."

Garnet touched her forehead in thought while slowly turning to Peridot. "Until we know how exactly she's doing that, we can't risk going after wherever she's decided to hole up. We need to focus."

"I wish I knew, Garnet. It's not like I just gave her access to PeridApp's source code. There's no way she could have..."

Her voice trailed off while she looked to Steven. Both reached that same sinking realization.

"When I made it public by mistake… She's got control of PeridApp! My best creation yet!"

Steven grabbed for his phone on the spot. "She must've found a way to track my phone to find us here!" As soon as the screen came up, he was bombarded with a number of missed calls from Greg. "Dad's been trying to call me too, but it only vibrated for the warp alerts…"

By then, Pearl had retrieved her own phone, which she handed to Peridot for examination. "She can't have managed to delay warp alerts she set off just with one night's access to PeridApp. Which means she's probably given the code to Homeworld bases to sift through. The whole plan is compromised!"

In the meantime, Steven stepped away a little to finally return those missed calls, growing more worried by the apparent desperation behind them.

"Dad, what's going on there? I think Shungite is messing with the phones as well."

" _I tried calling you and Pearl several times! She told me to warn one of you if I noticed anything weird, and right after she and the Gems left someone apparently went from Mask Island to the Galaxy Warp._ "

Steven froze up. In the midst of what they had concluded, one thing that Peridot had mentioned to him stuck out.

 _I also laid the groundwork for a future update that will give us control over the robonoids through our mobile devices._

" _Steven, you there?_ "

He swallowed. "I'll call you back in a bit." He put the phone back in his pocket and turned to the others, feeling more unsettled than ever. "Peridot, did you update it with control over the robonoids?"

Everyone looked to Peridot, wide eyed and silent, shaken to the core of her being.

"Yes."

All the pieces were there. If there was an existing plan, it had simply been made far easier by one mistake after the next, all made with innocent intent, no real thought for unforeseeable consequences.

"Apatite isn't coming by ship."

When the shock realization passed to all the others, Garnet was first to react.

"Steven, Connie, take Peridot and Gradie with you to the Temple on Lion. Destroy the escape pod and stay there, I mean it. Everyone else to the Galaxy Warp."

In the rush that followed, both Steven and Connie had barely a moment to look at each other before being bowled up onto Lion's back by him.

"Garnet, we can't hide from her!"

Garnet was racing up the hill ahead of the others by then, barely able to make out Steven's exclamation. "I'm not asking you to! Someone has to protect the Temple if Shungite tries to break in while we're distracted!"

Once Gradie had landed on Lion's back, and Peridot was sitting in his mane about as comfortably as she could, he readied himself for the portal back home.

Steven looked at Connie again, reaching for her hand that time.

"We defend the Temple, or we save the others from Apatite."

As Lion began the run up to the roar, Connie squeezed his hand. "I think we both know which is more important."

The portal opened, Gradie holding on tightly having never experienced the journey before, Peridot swallowing deeply having remembered hers.

The gemstone beneath Steven's shirt began to glow. "You're right. We do."

* * *

Every second spent in warp transit was agonizing for Garnet. She had gone well ahead of the others, gauntlets at the ready, hoping to stop a disaster before it could occur. One she couldn't foresee at all.

"It won't happen, it won't happen, we won't let it happen…"

At the moment the energy field around the warp pad dropped, she took in what was going on.

The Elysium warp pad was covered in the remaining robonoids, all working to restore it to full functionality. Most of their reserves had been expended repairing the Homeworld pad, and what was left had gone towards their own ordered repairs. All of them had to expend their very last to fix that pad under Shungite's orders.

An incoming warp conduit began right before her eyes, casting the now defunct robonoids aside in its wake. The beam of light signalling their impending doom.

"No!"

She leapt off the local warp pad, gauntlets clashing together as she swung her arms up, and drove them right down towards the active pad with every intent to pulverize that whole section of the warp structure.

Every metre towards the goal took milliseconds to cover. Closer and closer.

Just before impact, an armored orange gauntlet lashed out from the field, cancelling the force of her blow altogether.

Garnet sprawled to the floor in a panic as Citrine emerged, the two having fused into one, bringing their respective gauntlets into a pair made solely to rival her own.

They were prepared.

"Typical fusion behaviour."

Teeth gritted, Garnet thrust herself off the ground and took a swing right for Citrine's face. She blocked it with both hands in a crash of force that boomed across the ocean expanse.

"You're not leaving this warp zone!"

Citrine responded by shoving her back against the Homeworld warp, causing it to crack further from the force of the impact while she stepped down to the open arena, her fellow Gems right behind.

"We beg to differ."

From the direction of the local pad came Pearl leaping into action, spear at the ready.

"We don't want your kind here! Go back-"

Only to be intercepted by Teal Pearl, wielding a halberd that she used to block Pearl's spear, and a smile to defuse her moment of courage.

"We plan to, when we're ready."

The melee below devolved into a wild flurry of brutal punches, Garnet and Citrine weaving and swinging at each other with loud crashes whenever they scored a hit against the other.

Lapis was ready to swoop in to aid them both with a giant hand rising from the ocean when a beam fired from Aquamarine's white ring-wand caused it to lose shape.

"No cheating!"

The distraction by the hand gave Lapis an opportunity to physically grab Aquamarine and hold her arms down. "What do you call that hair tie then!?"

"It's a scrunchie, you dolt."

Aquamarine fired it up again, causing Lapis enough pain to make her release the grip and fall to the ocean surface, leaving herself enough time to follow-up with a summoned water hand of her own to return the gesture.

By then, the two Pearl's had landed next to the cracked Homeworld warp, clashing polearms as they both fought for an exploitable weakness to strike at, only for Amethyst to tear between the two in a blaze of purple fire, headed right for the Elysium warp.

She too was stopped by her counterpart with a hard whack of her small mallet, though unlike the others, Sunstone looked rather nervous about the whole matter.

"I did tell them this wasn't a good idea!"

Amethyst was too enraged by then to pay her any heed, recovering from the whack to her head mid-spin with a threatening draw of her whip instead.

"Guess you weren't loud enough!"

"Oh, she is never loud enough I'm sorry to say."

The last to step off the warp pad was Apatite herself, looking more smug than ever. Her coat dipped against it momentarily while she looked at the three combatants, raising her arms in triumph at it all.

The local pad lit up for yet another arrival

"The Crystal Gems, stopped by the rabble I happened to have for staff this century! I thought Shungite was lying about how easy it was to dispatch you all."

"Think again!"

She looked over at the local pad. By then, Stevonnie had arrived, sword, shield and determined expression all at the ready.

"And here comes the hybrid and his human plaything, fused no less." She clasped her hands together and lifted a foot in a mocking whimsical manner. "Oh, the experiments to be performed, the fun to be had, it just warms me so."

Garnet was barely able to escape the onslaught from Citrine, and thus could only call out to Stevonnie. "I told you to stay at the Temple!"

Stevonnie looked down in a moment of thought, then gripped Rose's Sword tightly. "The Temple won't matter if you're all gone. Besides, Apatite hasn't ever fought someone like me."

Apatite's grin grew wider. Her right hand she moved down and opened, as if waiting for something to be placed there. "I'm getting all giddy inside at the thought. Fighting something completely new, that's a real experience!"

She hissed into a strange sort of laugh as her upper body trembled, shortly followed by four mechanical limbs growing out from her back. One placed a teal-coloured rapier in her open hand, while the other three all formed into small armored plates, ready to block blows at a moment's notice. The fourth wasn't far behind with the same.

"It's only fair after all, Rose Quartz. All those special little abilities of yours, why, we have to do a little catching up."

Stevonnie smirked. "Try your best. I'm stronger than you think."

With a flaired whip of her rapier, Apatite returned the smirk, tilting her head while moving her left hand behind her back. "We'll see. I'm not one to underestimate anyone, or anything."

"Stevonnie no!"

Pearl's desperate exclamation earned her a swift strike to the face from the blunt end of Teal's halberd, forcing her down to the floor. While able to evade the finishing attack, it still made it all too clear that she was in no position to help.

The distance between the duelists closed in the midst of the foray. Lapis and Aquamarine continuing their struggle of water powers and Gemtech, Garnet and Citrine laying further waste to the Homeworld warp with every missed swing, Amethyst and Sunstone exchanging blows between whipcracks and mallet swings.

The clash of forged sword against energized rapier caused a small flash of light as the two combatants stared at each other. Albeit with a bit of head tilting from Stevonnie to try and match Apatite's unnatural eye arrangement.

"Must have trouble with depth perception huh?"

Their swords unlocked, only to clash against their respective shields moments later. Apatite had gone for a high face blow, while Stevonnie aimed right for the chest.

"Surprisingly, not at all."

Apatite flipped her shields forward to clamp down on the sword while taking another swing with her rapier. Stevonnie used that opportunity to push forward, forcing her to step back before the blade slipped through and cleaved into her body.

That was followed up by a hard slash from Stevonnie, blocked by three of the shields while the fourth was cut clean from its limb, crashing to the ground before dissolving back into formless goop.

That gave Apatite genuine pause. "Do you know how resource costly these limbs are?"

"Worth going home empty handed before I cut the rest off?"

The local warp pad fired up again, something both combatants didn't take notice of.

"You can still come willingly. It will spare all the others a lot of pain."

Apatite swung in with a flurry of blows, clashing against Stevonnie's shield again and again, forcing harder blocks to weaken that arm while her autonomous shields deflected the counterattacks. She had the advantage of not relying on bodily stamina to fight, and was exploiting that readily.

Not that Stevonnie had any shortage of endurance in the fight to worry about.

"We will stop all you Homeworld Gems. Count on it!"

"I don't need to count, Pearl does all that nonsense for me, so-"

Her eyes flicked to the side as a blue sword came sweeping in past Stevonnie. The remaining three shields went up to block it, but the sheer force behind Gradie's swooping sword strike caused her to stumble. A leg sweep from Stevonnie brought her crashing to the ground altogether, as another swing from Gradie cut through the other three shields and left her coated in more useless goop.

Both of them were standing over her shortly after, swords directed at her head.

"I'd hi-five you right now, but obviously…"

In the meantime, Peridot had gone right to Lapis' aid with a sheet of metal that she hurled around Aquamarine to pin her down, giving Lapis the chance to sweep through and nab her wand away before encasing her in a large bubble of water to complete the prison.

Further across, Lion leaped from a freshly formed rift to Garnet's aid, tackling Citrine with enough force to throw her into the ground. In desperation, she unfused into her two selves to escape the roaring beast, only for Garnet to grab each by the throat and chokeslam them down so that Lion could sit across them both.

Greg had arrived by warp pad as well, eventually coming to Amethyst's aid with a big tire.

"Yeaaargh!"

Down the tire went right over Sunstone, pinning her arms to her sides, subsequently knocking her mallet out of her hand, until she ended up falling over and could only flail her legs in a panic.

"Apatite! Help! They've caught me in a rubberized restrainment device!"

Apatite rolled her eyes. "Typical."

Pearl noticed the aid of the others, only to grumble as her duel with Teal Pearl continued. "A little help please?"

Stevonnie nodded then proceeded to unfuse, Connie rushing over with the sword to force Teal Pearl into a surrender while Steven moved up on Apatite, keeping the shield handy against any attack she might try.

Of them all, she had a worrying lack of concern over the turn of events, giving nothing more than a mildly bothered look at all the others.

"Typical, the Crystal Gems can't even win a fair fight. Shame you can't outnumber Homeworld, you certainly can't outmatch us!"

Gradie tipped her sword closer. "Shame on you for not coming with more Gems then. I've taken down so many in my time, I would've liked a challenge."

"Oh really? Would you have liked to fight Star Lapis Lazuli as well then?"

That made her tense up.

"Yes, she's back on Homeworld. I hear she spends her free time watching recordings of her time as Azurite. Laughing. Laughing at how petty you were in submitting to her, all because you were afraid of me. I wonder if the tough talk will continue when you meet her again."

Gradie ground her teeth and raised her sword high to make a cutting blow against Apatite, only for Steven to touch at her stumped shoulder. His expression was clearly asking for restraint, something she didn't like at all. And yet, she didn't have the heart to argue with him about it either.

He instead moved closer to Apatite, still keeping on the defensive around her. "We only fight Homeworld Gems because they want to destroy Earth, and take all the people from their homes. Haven't you done enough damage already? What's the point?"

After glancing up at Gradie again, and past her for a moment, Apatite rolled her eyes back to Steven and brought back her wicked grin. "Misdeeds at Homeworld cannot go unpunished. Losing valuable resources is one thing, but letting a lesson go without being beaten in, no, we can't have that at all."

She rolled onto her side and clutched at her gemstone right as Shungite slammed onto the Homeworld warp in a thundering clap of hard light against rock, her flute whipping back up to her lips as soon as she recovered. The two notes she played in alternation rang out before she was even back in a standing position.

* * *

It was still ringing in Garnet's head when she regained consciousness. The important thing she took notice of first was that she was still in existence. The note that Shungite had used to incapacitate all the Gems wasn't nearly as strong as the one used in the Beta Kindergarten. No concern about physical damage at least.

Voices she could barely make out were muffled heavily, as if heard through several pillows. Not an experience she was familiar with at all.

"Stop whining Sunstone. It can be removed when we return."

There was a higher pitched voice that seemed to be whining in complaint anyway. She could make out the faint gold plume of hair atop a shape of brown, with a black shape around the middle. She was still trapped in the tire.

"What about her?"

"Bring her as well. Our Diamond will find great amusement in the actual case of a Gem fusing with a human. There is much that can be learned for weaponization yet."

Garnet grunted as she tried to stand, at the very least to move closer and take a swing at Apatite before she got away.

Citrine Elbow had Steven slung up over her left shoulder, while Citrine Forearm had Connie over her right, and was drawing closer to the warp pad. All the others, including Apatite herself, were already assembled there.

Her attempt to move closer had apparently been noticed at last when Apatite tilted her head.

"Sorry, but we have no use for obsolete Rubies, or excess Sapphires. You're clearly no match for Star Sapphire's power, not that it's any surprise."

Still being too weak to make any kind of meaningful attack didn't stop Garnet from trying, a weak yell marking her flailing attempt to swing at Apatite from too far away. The warp pad blared into life and took all of them away before she got near to it.

Steven and Connie were gone.

She lay there for minutes after, trying not to break down in tears as she stared at the warp pad. They had failed in the most catastrophic way, and the only course of action left to take was crushing her inside.

By the time she got back up to her feet, having had to wipe her eyes clear several times, the others had started to wake as well, Greg included.

Every step was heavy as she plodded over to the warp pad, summoning back her gauntlets and bringing them together. At the edge, she fell to her knees, resting those gauntlets on the pad itself.

"I failed them. We had the advantage and I failed them."

She had to grind her teeth to stop herself from breaking down again as she raised her hands high above her head.

"We can't go after them. We can't let them send more Gems here."

In the moment, her hands began to shake.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

They came crashing down on the pad, cracking it clean through, rendering it inoperable once more.

Elysium could no longer send troops back to take more humans, to attack the Crystal Gems or the Temple. And they could no longer fall into the horribly tempting trap of going to Elysium by warp pad, effectively handing themselves over to White Diamond for shattering.

A necessary act, but one she hated herself for all the same.

The black screen closed in around Garnet's gauntlets without pause, leaving silence in its wake.


	10. Appetite for Apatite

"Connie?"

Conne flailed her arms in front of her face as she woke up in a panic. That panic was only worsened by seeing her surroundings. Pristine white walls with a faint teal glow to them, a humming energy field between her and a hallway beyond.

A twist of her head revealed a transparent wall, also tinted teal. When her eyes adjusted to the glow, she slowly made out Steven's shape, huddled in one corner away from the hallway.

"Steven!"

"Don't touch the barrier. It's designed specifically to keep humans in, but let Gems through."

She pressed both hands against the wall between them in desperation. It was growing harder and harder to resist breaking down in tears over their circumstances, only worsened by how defeated Steven looked. He had been awake longer clearly, enough to exhaust their options for escape.

"Steven, what do we do?"

Steven didn't budge from that corner. The marks on his hands and arms from trying to breach the energy field said enough. "We wait. We play along, bide our time, then escape when we have a plan in mind. Right now, we can't do anything. Apatite won, it's as simple as that."

It was exactly what she didn't want to hear from him, and the blunt nature of his admission only made her eyes water further. "Am I going to end up like Lars?"

There was a long pause, a lot of various looks from Steven, even an attempt to answer at one point, before he finally made the effort to crawl over to the wall and place his hands against it in return.

"Connie, I escaped Homeworld with Lars and the Off Colours. We stole Emerald's ship by sneaking past her Citrines, and they took me back to Earth after she attacked and I crashed on that jungle moon. Remember that."

Connie nodded. His point was clear enough, to avoid drawing any attention whatsoever to his real method of escape, and the potential for Apatite to try and explore that method…

"How do we get to a ship of our own then? Are there even any Off Colours to meet up with here?"

Steven gave a cold shrug while glancing around the room, making it clear that he well and truly believed they were being spied on at that very moment. "This is supposedly one of the oldest colonies. If there were Off Colours on Homeworld, there's bound to be some here." He looked back to her, and momentarily smiled with a wink before returning to his more glum expression. "And all we'll do is lead White Diamond right to them."

"Right, they'll be tracking us all the way." She took the signal for what she assumed it was and played along with his pessimistic tone. "No hope of getting away from these Homeworld Gems. They've probably got guards at every warp pad and every spacedock anyway. And we can't fly back to Earth by ourselves."

While his expression moved downward further, Steven did his best to avoid smiling. "It's not like Lapis is here to carry us in a big bubble all the way back home."

"And Peridot isn't here to cobble together a battle mech to fight all the guards White Diamond throws at us."

"Alexandrite could take them all herself with one fire breath attack alone..."

The moment passed. Both went back to sitting there quietly. Listening. Waiting.

"We'll find a way to get home. I promise you Connie."

A bell sound rang out into both cells, drawing their attention to the hallway beyond briefly.

"I know Steven, I know."

" _Test subjects will prepare for inspection by Iron Quartz._ "

Steven looked to Connie with great surprise.

She looked back with a hint of fear in her eyes. "Iron Quartz? How many Quartz variants are there?"

Two bright red Gems strode into view at that moment. They had the typical body shape of Quartzes, but the thick dreadlocks that ran from their head in evenly spaced rows were unlike anything they had seen amongst Gemkind before, only adding to their menacing presence.

The flails that they carried looked no less intimidating. These Gems were built solely for fear, and in a society that supposedly didn't need it to remain functional, they were also probably quite bored, and waiting for an opportunity to make themselves useful.

Very bad for them.

The field dropped once the respective Quartz was outside the cell, ready and waiting to escort them to Apatite's lab.

As it turned out, they had faint German accents.

"Step outside, subject Connie."

"Step outside, subject Steven."

Connie looked to Steven. Steven looked to Connie. The former nodded, then the latter. Both took a breath, and stepped forward.

The hands placed on their respective shoulders were firm, but not painful. Just enough to keep them from running if they tried to slip free, not that they had anywhere to run to.

"Keep pace."

"Arrival expected at exacting time."

"No conversation."

"Obey all orders given."

The way in which they alternated their issuing of instructions was unsettling. Always starting right as the other finished without so much as a pause, as if they were simply one voice with two mouths.

Steven couldn't see either of their gemstones, but it did raise the memory of the Topaz pair he had met, and made him wonder if there was something similar going on with their guards.

By then they had reached the end of the hallway, the two Iron Quartzes stopping at the threshold of what turned out to be an airlock. A pale white Gem was waiting in the room beyond, just slightly shorter than Peridot, and spindly in figure like Pearl. She had a mane of hair that looked more like large spines than actual strands, or at least the hard light equivalent that almost all Gems had. Unsurprisingly, she had a white diamond on her uniforms, just like the Iron Quartzes. Her gemstone was situated on her left cheek.

"Ready for departure, please keep both subjects within the vicinity of tertiary access hatch for swift disembarkation on arrival."

The respective Iron Quartz responded. "By your order Natrolite 9KT."

And the other Quartz in turn. "No resistance from subjects."

It was clear that Natrolite held authority over Quartzes at least, but her posture indicated she was more fed up than prideful. Her attention was switching between both Steven and Connie almost out of boredom as they were escorted into the ship.

"I'll never understand the fascination with fleshlings. Oh well, if this sees less of my crew reassigned needlessly for the next few hundred years…"

Natrolite rolled her shoulders before striding away towards the front of the shuttlepod. "Notify Apatite that we are enroute now. That will be all."

Steven and Connie were led across the room to an airlock further towards the front of the shuttlepod, made to face the plain teal surface of it while the other Gems on board went about their respective tasks. A small rumble marked their departure from whatever building they had been housed in.

Not being able to see anything of where they going, or ask any questions was absolutely deliberate. The less they knew of Elysium outside whatever labs they were being shuttled between directly affected their ability to plan an escape. It was only through sheer luck that he and Lars had survived the fall on Homeworld at all. And thinking happy thoughts while plunging into the depths of a hollowed out world didn't sound all that easy.

Nor did fighting off robonoids in mid air while floating down, especially without the sword.

The most he could do for that moment was glance over at Connie, doing his best to reassure her with expression alone that they weren't doomed to the fate ahead.

"Approaching destination. Please be ready Iron Quartzes, we don't need another delay."

They both looked to each other in annoyance just briefly. The rumble of the ship docking with their destination signalled for a tighter grip as they waited for the doors to open, and their time under Natrolite's grating micromanaging to end.

It left little time for Steven and Connie to share one last glance of their own. The moment of truth lay ahead, answering just what kind of tests they were in for at last.

When the doors opened, Apatite's two personal Citrines were standing there. Their curly flows of orange hair had been tied back with white scrunchies since the battle at the Galaxy Warp, but other than that they looked completely unscathed from the experience. Not even a faint scuff on their uniforms.

"Well well, the reds actually managed to stay on time for once."

"It looks that way, Citrine."

Both Iron Quartzes clenched their free hands a little harder, glaring back at their orange Quartz counterparts.

"Transfer matched to exacting time standards."

"Duty performed optimally, no change in status of test subjects."

Both Citrines sighed in an exhausted manner.

"Yes yes, we both have fully functioning eyes. Go back to doing whatever it is you Irons do."

"Aside from being boring of course."

Both Citrines snickered while summoning their respective gauntlets, Elbow taking Connie's shoulder while Forearm took Steven's.

Elbow squeezed Connie in a rather uncomfortable manner, causing her to gasp in mild pain. "Hm, they feel squishier than I remember."

"Unnatural gravity does that to organics, or so Aquamarine says. Just try not to break their fragile little arms and we won't get in trouble, mm?"

The procession moved forward at that point into the laboratory complex itself. The design itself was starting to become familiar to Steven. It was very similar to that which he had seen through the astral projection into the Lapis Lazuli working at Shungite's home lab, and more so what Lapis herself had described when inhabiting her body.

Which also meant White Diamond was closer than ever, possibly one of the observers herself.

Anxiety was rising, as was the continued urge to break the imposed silence. The Citrines certainly seemed a lot less robotic than their red counterparts, but then they had also been pretty aggressive in fighting Garnet. Mean looking flails suddenly didn't seem quite so dangerous in comparison to the gauntlets.

They began to pass Gems in the corridors as they moved deeper in, as well as many closed doors. There were a couple of Peridot variants, including one that Steven almost mistook for being Squaridot for a few moments, but the vast majority were Gems neither of them had even heard of before, let alone seen. All either had lab coats akin to Apatite, suits like the Peridot they knew well, or skirts and tights like Shungite, though with full sleeve jackets to accompany them instead of bare midriffs and large shoulder pads.

As expected, every single one of them bore White Diamond's insignia. No transfers from either of the other courts at all.

None paid any attention whatsoever to the two humans, only glancing briefly at the Citrines before continuing on their way.

"So, the two of you actually held your own against Apatite there huh? Not bad."

Neither of them replied to Citrine Elbow, leading to Citrine Forearm nudging Steven's shoulder lightly.

"Loosen up, the Iron Quartzes are too strict, no fun at all. They're even worse than Aquamarine about following rules."

As much as it sounded like a trick just to get them in more trouble, the way they had acted towards the Iron Quartzes from the start did seem like they genuinely didn't get along, and that Citrine wasn't trying to catch them out.

"Well, we have practised sword-fighting a lot. Didn't think there were that many Gems that used swords anymore."

Citrine Elbow glared at a pair of Tanzanites that had begun to stare at them until they moved out of earshot, not wanting to be overheard. "They don't. Apatite gets bored so quickly that she had Sunstone spend eighty cycles working on that blade just so she'd have something to flick at us."

The lightening of the mood gave Connie motivation to join in as well. "That sounds like a pretty crummy way to live, putting up with her boredom tics."

"Tell me about it. We could be out there pushing borders and guarding new colonies, but instead all we get to do is push around organics until she gets bored again."

Steven took a breath, then went for the clinching line. "Why don't you just tell her that you want to do something else?"

Both Citrines looked at him, then at each other, smirking after.

"Yeah, we'll just tell her that we're fed up with working for Homeworld's elite in the easiest job ever and have decided to help a traitor and a random human to escape right after capturing them because we decided we're just so fed up with her on a whim."

"Why, we'll just pick you up and waltz right over to the nearest starship to send you back home on and brand ourselves traitors after eons of loyal service. Nothing could possibly go wrong!"

The depressing realization that both Steven and Connie came to at that moment was interrupted by them both being shoved into the end of a corridor that they had arrived at. Both Citrines broke out into laughter as the outer doors closed, cutting the pair off from the Quartzes.

The room they were trapped in was barely two metres cubed, and felt uncomfortably confining in its solid white glow.

Steven winced while placing his forehead against the nearest wall. "I almost can't believe Apatite already expected us to try getting sympathy from other Gems. Almost."

"Or the Citrines are just manipulative and nasty like that anyway. I don't think they were pretending to be mean to the Iron Quartzes."

"Not to be more of a downer, but I don't know which is worse."

The wall he was leaning against began to open abruptly. He took a step back, only for the wall behind to begin growing out until it had pushed both him and Connie into the large dome space ahead.

Apatite and several other Gems were watching them from various rooms behind reinforced glass. Quite a few robonoids were in the space with them. Most looked to be there for observational testing, while a couple had more robust designs, including one that was carrying a sword as if ready to hand it over.

They were set for combat testing.

"I'll admit, I was impressed by the ability of an organic to face me in swordfighting, even one with hybrid physiology, so that is where we will begin. At least while we prepare other tests."

The flashing smile on Apatite's face at the mention of those 'other tests' was incredibly disconcerting. Even those Gems around her, save for Aquamarine, looked rather less settled. Aquamarine herself looked as if she wanted to be anywhere else at all.

Steven looked to Connie for a few moments, then back up at Apatite. "You can't make us fuse if we choose not to!"

The smile turned into a smirk at that moment. Exactly the answer Apatite had wanted.

"Oh, this isn't a negotiation. We Gems are quite literally capable of standing here and waiting for you to cooperate for as long as that takes. You two on the other hand have bodily needs such as food, water, sleep and other such organic functions that will soon become impossible to ignore." She took hold of a pad that was handed to her by her Pearl without breaking eye contact. "Shungite has been gracious enough to relay her own studies on human needs, and alternate methods to see them fulfilled, so don't expect a 'hunger strike' to work either. Complying really is your only option. The choice is when."

Another harsh shutdown that there was no real rebuttal to. Escape would mean swallowing a lot of pride, and hoping that they could put whatever plan they could cobble together into effect before the tests grew more and more invasive, as they were so clearly implied to.

That time, he looked to Connie, and stayed focused on her instead. "We're not letting them take a mile by giving an inch. This isn't giving up."

The most Connie could do was nod. Resistance would end badly, and the Gems were patient enough to not get sloppy with guarding them, that much she knew. They had to change the rules of their situation in order to break free.

"I'm with you on this Steven. Let's get it over with."

He nodded in return, hand outstretched. On the edge of his vision, he could see some of the robonoids starting to circle around. Waiting to capture as much information as Apatite could get a hold of.

"We're not going to let this ruin being Stevonnie. No matter what happens."

They clasped hands at last. His gemstone lit up bright, until their forms began to merge, and Stevonnie was left standing in the space between them.

Most of the Gems began to squirm or even recoil at the sight. Apatite kept up her smirk while occasionally glancing down to her pad.

"Fascinating, even their physical attire amalgamated." She gestured at the combat robonoids while turning her attention fully to the readout from the scanners. "Perfect merging of internal organs as well, even distribution of skeletal and muscular structure, and yet traces of Gem energy remain at a constant. Nothing actually gained or lost by the Rose Quartz stone."

Stevonnie pulled a face upon hearing that, just as the combat robonoid hovered up to give them the sword. "You can't scientifically measure friendship!"

"Oh, and here I was thinking you weren't actually going to resort to 'pretty rainbows and the power of friendship'. Clearly I was thinking too highly of you."

After rolling her eyes, Apatite switched the scanner readout for a set of controls instead, nodding to some of her fellow Gems to begin attending to their own systems.

"You should know that the sword lended to you for these tests is designed to disintegrate on command, or in the proximity of a non-Rose Quartz gemstone. Don't waste your time trying to threaten anyone with it, and you'll save yourself that much trouble." With a gesture of her hand, she powered up the largest of the combat robonoids. "Begin."

Stevonnie's shield came out right as a volley of lasers blared out from each of the combat robonoids. A few tagged various parts of their body, harmlessly dissipating over the skin with no more than a mild tingling zap.

"Hm, still vulnerable to a properly established ambush then. Good to know."

"I'd like to see you get out of this without being hit once!"

The number of zaps decreased significantly once Stevonnie got into action. Situational awareness went up, reflexes sharpened, and now more than ever the shield was put to use, deflecting the shots as they came more and more often.

Steven's bubble power was going to remain secret for as long as possible. Any little advantage over Apatite was too valuable to give up just yet.

"Now that's something. You're actually starting to approach the dexterity of a Smoky Quartz. An especially clumsy one anyway, not that it takes much for them to be classed as such. Disposing of them was a good day for Gem society."

Stevonnie gave something of a battle cry, mostly coming from Steven, and charged for the nearest robonoid, sword and shield ready for the offensive.

At that precise moment, two more Gems entered the viewing ring. A Peridot, equipped with a full limb enhancer set, and a Lapis Lazuli. Both had white coats, and white diamonds on their uniforms beneath.

In the moments before launching the attack, they took that fractional moment to reflect, and withdraw back into the mental realm of their shared existence at Steven's own inner prompting.

* * *

Which consisted of the bizarre mixture of Beach City's beach at twilight, half of the jungle moon's dome in the ocean, Emerald racing around the block in the Donadi, and a cloud pattern that seemed to be shifting between endless butterflies and the tuft of hair on Lars' head.

Steven and Connie were stuck in the middle of it all, on what looked like part of the sky arena sloping down into the ocean, with more than enough sand and grit scattered over to make an audible crunch when they moved closer together.

"Huh, this isn't at all what I expected to find in here."

Connie watched Emerald tear down the road another time in utter confusion. "You'd think it'd be less… chaotic?"

By then, Steven had kicked away enough sand to feel convinced that it was indeed a vivid dream. "When I was in Lapis' mind, both times I mean, it was just a lot of water and empty black sky. It definitely wasn't filled with memories all jumbled together."

They both panicked briefly as a giant head emerged from the ocean, gazing down over them. It was Apatite, almost unsurprisingly.

"I'm getting all giddy inside at the thought. Fighting something completely new, that's a real experience!"

The panic faded as they both realized it was just another memory, and not Apatite in the present peering into their shared mind. Scary as the thought was of anyone witnessing the chaotic mess they had left their mindscape in, somehow, it still paled to the concept of Apatite also having mental invasion powers, rather like Shungite…

"Steven, before this gets weirder, why did you bring us here?"

He hummed in thought, then before speaking, waved his hand at the ocean horizon. The dome sank into the ocean with a low burble, as did Apatite's looming face. Two steps closer to straightening out the madness.

"I had a hunch, and I needed to test if we could talk like this, mentally, like Garnet instructed. If we do it while we're fighting, it'll be a lot harder for Apatite to figure out what we're up to."

"Good thinking." Connie nodded, trying to fill herself back up with a bit more confidence for that. "So, what's the hunch?"

Another hum, another hand wave. This time, Emerald's screeching voice faded, and not because she had driven out of earshot again.

"The Peridot and the Lapis that just showed up, I think they're the ones Lapis and I saw, back when we first fought Shungite. They both look, familiar."

Connie tightened her lips, failing to see the importance, but chose to wait for elaboration anyway.

"Something connected that Lapis to ours, and I might be able to tap into that connection again, just enough to talk with the one here at least."

At that, Connie reached her hand out, her concern growing too strong to ignore. "What good will that do? You told me you literally saw White Diamond through her eyes! That Lapis ran into Apatite while she was controlling her body and became suspicious! What if she notices something's wrong with her again?"

That time, Steven sighed. He didn't want to admit just how large a risk it was to take, to them especially, but the reasoning in mind was too strong to just ignore.

"She's the only Gem I have a chance of talking to without any other Gem spying on us. Apart from Apatite and White Diamond which we need to avoid as much as possible anyway. Otherwise, we wait for our Lapis to swap bodies with this Lapis again so she can bust us out of this lab, and somehow I'm not sure that'll happen without us asking her to try first anyway."

Connie blinked a couple of times, then sighed herself. "Okay, fair point. Still, she'd be one step away from reporting it all to Apatite. I really hope your persuasion skills are good enough for this."

As soon as he nodded confidently, the mindscape dissipated, sending both back into the conscious realm as one once more.

* * *

A slow clap was the first thing Stevonnie took notice of upon returning to a conscious state. All of the combat robonoids had backed off to the edges of the dome, bearing quite a number of dents each. The not-quite sarcastic applause was from Apatite.

"That's more like it. Less chatter, more action, better results."

All of the robonoids around Stevonnie floated up into a hatch that opened at the very top of the dome, which shut immediately after the last to prevent any kind of escape through there.

"You've earned a small break, behave well and I might just make the following tests a little shorter for today. I'm not entirely unsympathetic, just almost entirely."

A different doorway opened up at a right angle to the one they had entered through upon Apatite's gesture in that direction.

"I might even put in a good word with White Diamond for you, Rose Quartz. Her clarity is of course not beyond forgiveness, though you do have a thousand years of crimes to pay penance for in addition to your more recent activities. Don't let that deter you from trying however."

Stevonnie's grip on the sword tightened momentarily, then relaxed as it was tossed to the floor in a spiteful manner. It wasn't in bad temper, but it certainly came close.

"Oh, and please do remember to unfuse first. The Kyanites have gone to great efforts to cultivate suitably edible plant life we retrieved from the zoo to spare the difficulty of transporting perishables. Not disgusting them with your existence is a simple, but important courtesy."

The urge to lash out at the smarmy remark took a lot of willpower to suppress, eventually ending with Steven and Connie unfusing in a particularly cold manner, both left glaring up at Apatite in complete silence. Patience was key, however difficult it would be to maintain.

* * *

As expected, Apatite was lying through her teeth. 'Shorter' turned out to be eighteen hours of combat tests, designed to wear them out both as Stevonnie and as themselves in cooperation until they were too exhausted to fight any longer. And thus, too exhausted to attempt escape during their allocated sleeping hours.

However uncomfortable it was to sleep on a flat surface with no blanket or pillow, even if the cell was regulated at an optimal temperature, Steven at least was too tired to make any real fuss about that particular problem with their confined accommodation.

And sleep was exactly what he needed to begin putting his plan into action.

* * *

Lapis Lazuli Facet-129G Cut 11 was quietly reviewing one of her more recent reports for filing when a distraction she assumed had long passed resurfaced in a most disconcerting, vivid manner.

" _Lapis Lazuli? If you can hear me, don't say anything out loud. I just want to talk._ "

The voice she immediately recognized as that of Subject Steven, however it was the fact that she also remembered hearing it weeks earlier that bothered her most. As hard as it was to not physically react to the surprise of it, she still maintained that stoic, not-quite bored stare at the screen while letting her conscious thought drift inwards.

Her own mindscape was not unlike the combat arena, just smaller in design. The lab she had worked at for nearly two thousand consecutive years on the Cold Star Project.

In the place that was typically occupied by Cold Star Carbon's plinth stood Steven himself instead, looking a little confused, but determined nonetheless.

At that point, sheer curiosity was all that kept her playing along with the experience, instead of closing it off and going to Apatite for further examination.

"What is it with mind realms being so dark?"

Lapis Lazuli took another look around the walkway surrounding the dome, then moved around to the ramp leading into it that she had traversed the real world counterpart of several times. "You tell me. I assume this isn't part of Apatite's course of experiments, and you don't have approval to invade my thoughts without prior consent?"

After some lip biting, awkward shuffling, and further thought, Steven gave a mix of shrugs and nods. "The first time was an accident. Somehow, our Lapis linked with you when Shungite attacked, and I ended up sharing that dream as well."

The mention of Shungite made Lapis Lazuli nod a little in understanding, though solely at where the conversation was headed. "Shungite and Cold Star Carbon have an unusual bond that may have spilled over somehow yes. But that doesn't quite explain why you are here now. If it's to apologize for the first incident…"

"Well, that was one reason actually."

Steven tried to push through the continued awkwardness as best he could by focusing on Lapis Lazuli properly, using the time taken to finally look at her properly as a pause for thought.

Her face was identical, as expected, though her hair was notably longer, combed back behind her ears and shoulders in a straight flow save for the curve around her gemstone that rested on top of her head.

By the end of his cursory look, he felt far more settled. "If I could have asked you without getting in trouble from Apatite, I would have. But if you really don't want me here, I'll leave for good. Promise."

After a glance around, Lapis Lazuli hummed as well. "I suppose that is a valid reason, stretched thin as it is. And this would be an opportunity to better study the effects of the Cold Star bond on Gems that are capable of astral projection that I otherwise couldn't test until Shungite returned." She looked back to him for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, I'll allow this to continue if you'll do me the courtesy of answering questions and assisting with certain discrete tests. Purely mental I assure you, I don't fancy losing control of my body again."

"I can live with that."

"Good, good. So, what really prompted you to make contact with me?"

One hurdle out of the way, only for the largest and worst of them to be thrust to the centre of attention.

Steven took a deep breath, then clenched his hands for that last bit of determination. "We need your help to escape."

As expected, the curiosity in Lapis Lazuli's eyes began to die off. Helping in their escape would not only make her a traitor, but it would also end the very research she hoped to conduct in the first place.

"Look, Steven, I don't exactly approve of Apatite's methods, or her fascinations, but I'm also not about to do something drastic like betraying both her and my Diamond for a human and a Rose Quartz hybrid. I can talk to her about maybe releasing you both in a few decades, but otherwise…"

She looked around at then, this time from muffled voices that seemed to be coming from beyond the lab. Other Gems were starting to draw closer to her.

Steven had also come to that same conclusion, and while his determination had taken a hit, it had not been broken altogether. "Lapis, Apatite does horrible things to Gems that cross her already. She's going to do far worse to Connie, and especially me. I know I can't ask you to betray White Diamond, but Apatite isn't worth your loyalty."

Her frown remained as she brought herself out of that state, giving herself enough time to reacquaint with her surroundings before those approaching arrived.

As it turned out, it was Apatite herself, accompanied by her Pearl. Surprisingly, they actually seemed rather disinterested in her specifically.

"Don't get up on our account, we won't be here long."

Lapis Lazuli remained quiet after settling back down from her momentary move to stand, though her eyes did follow the pair of Gems until they stopped at the main data terminal for the lab. As expected, Pearl was the one to begin accessing them, allowing Apatite to view the data itself freely.

"I do have to apologize for taking up so many precious resources on this ploy, Lapis Lazuli, however I can promise that it'll be over soon, and your lot can get back to tinkering with artificial Gems, and that pet shard of yours."

The silence persisted, though she could hear echoes of Steven asking nervous questions.

"No apology is necessary. Delays in work now to accelerate the project from decades to potential months are irrelevant in the grand scheme. Assuming your plan will work."

Apatite smiled, though for once it was more genuine, coming from pride at being of service to a Gem she could actually find tangible respect for. "To think that Yellow Diamond would have simply shattered her without a second thought, wasting all that potential. I may not care either way about her fate personally, but on the other hand, I don't like to see excessive waste where it isn't necessary. Especially when that waste is created in such a needlessly brutal manner."

Steven's voice grew quite a bit stronger. As far as he was concerned, that was all the evidence he needed that Apatite was about to do something horrible to him.

Lapis Lazuli tried to maintain her cold expression in spite of it all. "Yes, it is still amazing to me just how much she has accomplished since coming into existence, even if it was unintentional." She twisted her lips, ready to pose a question that had been on her mind the moment Apatite's priorities had changed. "That said, I though you saw her as a rival. What changed?"

The smile softened further while Apatite moved over to find a better spot to lean against, lightly touching Pearl's arm with a glance from her top eye. The left remained focused on Lapis Lazuli. "Rival is the wrong word. We both were created to purge impurities from this society, even if she is an impurity herself. I simply think her decision to spend time on Earth was misguided. She could do so much more here on the colonies if given the right direction. I simply dislike how much of our Diamond's time she takes up as a result."

"I suppose that is your opinion to have, Apatite. Her being active on Earth has allowed work on the other Cold Stars to progress at least, and for that I have no complaints."

"Oh yes, keeping on the subject of Cold Stars…"

Apatite left her spot at that moment, starting to make her way over to Lapis Lazuli, both eyes fixated on hers, as if trying to peer deeper in. "We should schedule your appointment soon. Have you had any further issues from being in Cold Star Carbon's presence? Any more moments of unconscious action, voices in your head?"

Lapis Lazuli twisted her lips. An obvious test, ready to catch out a lie if she tried, even if there was no real cause to suspect one beforehand. That was the way of Apatites after all.

"Some of the latter, yes. I suspect Shungite's interaction with the renegades causes the connection to flare up for a while. I'm allocating time over the next few months to begin studying the effects properly."

All of it completely truthful, and hopefully enough to satisfy Apatite's question.

"I'll make it a cursory examination then, you'll have copies of my findings to study from alongside the tests. I'll need time to recondition Rose Quartz anyway, once she's been properly extracted."

She could feel the empty silence in her head at last, though it was for reasons she hadn't wanted at all. Of course, it was technically not her problem, but the implication, and more importantly the validation was there.

"I see. I assumed we were going to put Steven to the task first, not the other way around."

At that moment, Pearl finished her task, standing to attention beside the terminal for when Apatite was ready.

Apatite herself rolled her shoulders in a casual shrug while making ready to depart. "I'm not convinced he can concentrate the healing powers of his specific Rose Quartz nearly enough to stabilize Cold Star Carbon. It may take a little longer, but I feel that reconditioning the Gem herself to do so is a more practical option. Unless of course…" She turned her head back, gazing down at Lapis Lazuli again while motioning for Pearl to join her. "You believe otherwise?"

Lapis Lazuli gave the most nonchalant shrug she could. "It sounds logical, and we are in no real hurry to see Carbon fully functional. I trust your judgement entirely, Apatite."

The natural look that Apatite had to her smile for a little while vanished altogether at that moment. Back to being one of smug superiority, of being absolutely correct in her decisions.

"Good. You needn't worry about volunteering to assist with the extraction, I have another Lapis Lazuli ready to clean up the mess. Wouldn't want to sully your hands with such a task below your particular expertise."

With that, Apatite finally made her departure, Pearl following close behind with a smirk and flick of her hair.

It wasn't until they were long gone, and she had settled back into her review that she returned to the mindscape Steven had remained in throughout. Understandably, he was entirely petrified by the news, and she was no longer in doubt about his word.

For her personally, it almost felt like she wasn't as shocked as she really should have been. "I'll help you, Steven. There's a difference between being held for testing, and well, that. White Diamond technically didn't set 'mutilation of other Gems' as an acceptable component of the Cold Star project after all."

The sheer extent of the gesture on Lapis Lazuli's part was not lost on Steven, who looked at her for several long seconds before finally reaching out to hug around her legs, or at least the lab coat draped over them.

"I'll try and stay in contact back on Earth, help you with your studies, anything." When he released the hug, it was after his smile of hope had returned, along with warmth to his cheeks. "Any idea how Connie and I can escape? Any ships within easy reach of this lab that can go faster than light?"

"Unfortunately no, the labs are separated from the main city and spaceports by shuttle pods, you'd never get to a port before others noticed." Lapis Lazuli folded her arms and touched a hand to her chin in thought. "We'd need a huge distraction, something that'd cut off power altogether. But then the spaceport doors would be locked shut…"

Steven adopted a similar posture to think as well, then snapped his fingers in a moment of inspiration. "I'll just call for help! All I'd need is a way to contact ships outside the spaceport, find one nearby and have them fly close enough to get on board, bubble the crew, and then when we're back home we'll let them go."

"That sounds pretty risky. I suppose I could fly you two up to the ship to make it slightly less risky, but I can't be seen to help you at all."

"No plan is perfect, at least if we go in knowing it's risky we won't take too many chances."

His smile grew a little forced at that moment when he noticed just how concerned Lapis Lazuli had become. Not telling her about Lars was deliberate on his part, just for the slim chance that she would tell Apatite anyway. What mattered most was getting the chance to call him for help, and even if the rest of the escape didn't work, there would at least be the prospect of incoming rescue to fall back on. That was something too valuable to risk.

"Well, in that case, you should know that repeating Incident 21-D could potentially blow a third of this planet out of existence in the worst case scenario, so if I really shouldn't take that chance…"

The thought alone made Steven wince, but at the same time it certainly sounded like a large enough distraction to keep even Apatite from ignoring it outright. "By worst case scenario, what are we talking about? Ten percent chance?"

"Point four one seven percent actually. I was the one who stopped the incident when it occurred, but since that solution won't work again I'll just have to come up with a less drastic version." She knelt down at that moment to be level eyed with him, resting her hands on his shoulders. "White Diamond will come to the lab as well to help in neutralizing the problem. She has a personal dome at the lab, should be able to get there easily enough. Most communication channels have separate encryptions and codes, but her chair will give you the best chance at finding an unlocked one. Just make sure you don't have half the fleet coming to rescue their Diamond, okay?"

"Believe it or not, this wouldn't be the first time I've used a Diamond's chair computer. Or the second time even."

That made Lapis Lazuli smile in such a wholesome way that for a moment made her look indistinguishable from the Lapis he knew so well.

"Sounds like quite the story. You'll have to catch me up on it sometime when you're back home. Now, you'd better get a lot of rest, it's going to be chaos in however many hours it takes for Cold Star Carbon to wake back up."

"Good luck Lapis, and don't get yourself hurt. There's so much I can tell you about all the Gem adventures I've had on Earth."

They both left the mindscape at that moment, the only physical sign on his end of anything happening being a simple yawn and readjustment of his sleeping position. Nothing that would alert those watching that anything of significance had just transpired.

* * *

The second journey to the lab was somehow even more uneventful than the first. Aside from repeating the same initial phrases from the previous day, the Iron Quartzes were silent. Natrolite didn't even say a word, simply looking bothered at the mundane task. The Citrines snickered to each other, but also avoided speaking to either one of them.

Even the arena lab itself looked identical to yesterday, save for new robonoids that didn't bear the dents of those Stevonnie had fought. Apatite was still standing up there with her posse, a multitude of other Gems were ready with their research tools.

No sign of that other Lapis Lazuli she had spoken about. No hint of her true plan for the day just yet.

It was hard saying nothing to Connie, but until they were 'given permission' to fuse, he had to remain entirely silent on the plan. That and he still had to work out a way to escape the arena itself once things got underway.

Once they were in the centre of the dome, Apatite leaned forward and smiled.

"I've had my Gems crunch the numbers on your tests from yesterday. They show promise, but they also indicate something of a crucial flaw in your strategy."

The robonoids began deploying their lasers at the two, looking even more menacing as they hovered about.

"The fact is that the human body is simply not durable enough to be worth exploring further for any real use. And then I remembered something, a few facts that prompted me to dig into some archival records…"

Steven's cheeks began to grow pale. There was a vague idea in mind about what Apatite had caught onto, and it was very very bad. He couldn't even bring himself to look at Connie, who was painfully ignorant by his own deliberate choice.

Apatite had gestured for Pearl to approach, who placed a datacube in the console right in front of her. A recording lit up in the arena, showing Lars and the Off Colours entering Emerald's personal hangar. Highlighting the very obvious fact that Steven was not among them.

"It has been a continuing mystery to White Diamond as to how you escaped Homeworld, and seeing as she asked me to finally crack it, I decided to expand my search.

The recording changed, this time to a view of the cell Connie had woken up in. This time, there was an audio component to it, played quite loudly for all to hear.

Connie's words, echoing from that very recording, and said with such harrowing fear and pain, cut Steven to the core.

" _Am I going to end up like Lars?_ "

Connie drew a breath, and looked to him, finally catching on to where things were headed for herself at least.

It made Apatite's smile into a full grin. "Subject Lars enters Homeworld custody with fair coloured skin, and left Homeworld with bright pink skin. The closest reference we have to such a colour is that of Subject Ga-reg. So tell me, Steven, what is it that affected both your father and Lars that Subject Connie is so afraid of?"

Both his hands clenched up until his knuckles turned pale. He had made a solemn, silent promise that Connie would not meet that fate, and whatever the cost, he would see that promise kept. They simply had to hold out until Lapis Lazuli enacted her part of the plan, no matter what.

"I'm not telling you any more, Apatite. I know what kind of Gem you are. I know you'll just exploit that secret for your own power gains. I agreed to comply with tests, but this was not part of the deal!"

Apatite rolled her eyes while gesturing to Pearl again.

"Bad mistake, Steven. I simply asked you what happened to them. But, seeing as I have only damaged robonoid scans from the escape on Homeworld, it seems I have no choice but to repeat the circumstances surrounding the changes noted in Subject Lars. Starting with…" She raised her hand towards her own robonoids. "A matching death."

In a moment of panic, just as the robonoids fired upon Apatite flicking her wrist, Connie wailed in terror.

Steven span around and threw his arms around her, covering them both in his pink bubble, shrunk down to minimal size to maintain its strength.

For once, Apatite was mildly surprised, though it quickly gave way to determination. "You can't hide in there long Steven! Sustained fire! Gradual power curve!"

The barrage of laser shots began blaring out, the pitch of them steadily rising as more and more power was gradually diverted to powering the robonoids.

Inside the bubble, both Steven and Connie held onto each other in desperate hope, only able to stand there and wait for the bubble to inevitably break under the assault.

Every second that it held under the barrage seemed to infuriate Apatite exponentially. "How is it holding up!? Break!" She began angrily gesturing at the Gems around her, barking out orders. "More power! Shatter that bubble and give me their-!"

A harrowing scream ripped through the whole lab at that moment, followed immediately after by a power surge that saw consoles and screens cracking and spraying glass everywhere.

Every one of the robonoids dropped to the floor and began spraying fire in all directions as their centralized control computer was utterly destroyed by the surge.

The bubble dissipated at the same time, both kids falling to the ground in gasps for air, though Steven's were mixed in with cries of anguish.

"Steven! Steven!"

His gemstone felt as if it was ready to melt out of his body, shooting bolts of pain all through his limbs as the scream began to echo around his mind.

 _Can't form! Not whole! No time! Must form! Incomplete! Can't form!_

* * *

For several agonizing seconds, the dome was gone from his perception altogether. He was trapped in a featureless void, falling endlessly, all while a chilling voice screeched her pains around. Like the voice of the Cluster, but only from a singular source.

Carbon's voice.

 _Not ready! Insufficient power! Must grow! Must form! Consume! Consume! Consume!_

"Carbon stop! Please!"

 _Carbon! Coal! Shale! Graphite! Hematite! Augite! Shungite! Carbon Army must form! Carbon must form!_

He couldn't even reach up to his head to clutch at the ring of pain encircling it as the voice wailed on. For that matter, he couldn't see his hands at all.

"This was a mistake! Lapis! You have to stop waking her up!"

 _Impurities cleansed! Impurities needed! Not whole! Not whole! Not whole!_

Out of seemingly nowhere, a hand caught him in his endless fall. A grey hand, cold to the touch, but not clammy by any means.

The hand of a Gem.

"Sister?"

Disorientated from pain, he could barely stand, though when he did, he found himself staring up at Shungite's expressionless eyes.

In a sudden shift of perspective, she shrank down before him, or more precisely he grew exponentially in size until she barely stood at hip height. It was so disorientating to his already unstable lack of balance, that he only caught a glimpse of his long, bleached bone white hands before losing consciousness altogether.

* * *

Only to regain it back in the physical world, under Connie's desperate shaking and grasping of his shirt.

"Steven please wake up! Wake up!"

Sparks showered over them both as another part of the dome tore off, collapsing near one of the walls with a hard crash of metal and shattering glass.

His head was still spinning every-which-way from the ordeal he had just gone through.

"Hey! Stop!"

A couple of Prasiolites had entered the ruined dome, ready to charge at the pair.

With no time left to wait, Connie immediately dived for one of the flailing robonoids, slinging her arms around one of the firing lasers and wrested it in the direction of the approaching quartzes. Both were poofed from a single impact each, their gemstones clattering to the floor amongst the rubble.

"Connie…"

Through more tears that had begun to flow, Connie stumbled her way back over to pull Steven up at last. While the Prasiolites were still otherwise intact, actually having to take them down in so harsh a manner was not easing her already troubled mind.

"I'm here Steven."

"I didn't expect this. I asked Lapis to give us a distraction to escape in, but this…" He clutched at his head until the pain subsided, having looked at his hands first to ensure they were indeed his once more. "We need to get out of here."

"No kidding!"

Connie clenched her teeth and tugged on his arm to get him right on his feet, keeping that hold until he steadied before finally releasing. "Where do we go from here then?"

"White Diamond's observatory. Lapis says she'll be wherever Carbon is right now. We go there, call Lars, and wait for him to arrive."

"Right. I guess we really can trust her if she was willing to do this to her lab."

She gestured around the ruins again, then hurried back over to that robonoid and grabbed hold of the arm. After a few hard tugs, she pulled it free of the main body, providing them with a hopefully still functioning means of defence.

"Somehow I don't think we're gonna find any Gem disruptors, or swords we can actually use against them."

Steven rubbed around his head more, then gave up trying to ease the residual pain and stumbled on after her instead. "White Diamond's chair will have its own power source. We just have to find her room. And hope that she hasn't changed the access code in the past five thousand years."

* * *

Every corridor was paced with Gems bustling about in the aftershock, so much so that it was incredibly difficult for Lapis Lazuli to slip away from the epicentre of it due to the sheer volume alone. Entire passageways had collapsed in the blast of Cold Star Carbon's awakening, and those that remained were littered with debris, and in some places gemstones of those that were less resilient against the effect, or closer to it.

A true disaster, and instead of stopping it from becoming cataclysmic, she had caused it.

From talking with Steven, through to reconnecting power conduits, right up to the moment she reached out and touched Carbon's gemstone, she hadn't truly grasped the gravity of what she was doing. All to prevent Apatite from performing some truly deplorable acts certainly, but still not part of an overall good outcome.

She didn't even know where to wait while Steven and Connie made their call. Too close to the observatory would implicate her. Too far away would mean they'd spend too long just searching for her, and thus lead to more run-ins with other Gems.

In the end, she opted for the crevasse walkway, a corridor that extended over one of the many looming falls to the hollowed out core of Elysium. A wide space, and still reasonably sturdy, ideal for launching towards an arriving ship from.

"They'll find you Lapis, just keep it together. This'll all be over soon enough."

"You're right about that."

She froze up in terror, not even able to tilt her head a little. There hadn't been any Gems headed in that direction, which could only mean she had been followed already. No amount of excuses or pleading would save her from whatever Apatite was about to do.

* * *

White Diamond's observatory was almost completely intact when the pair reached it. A few consoles near the door had blown out, but even the dome itself had held out. At the very least, it meant an easy sprint across the floor to the chair, and away from it if the need arose.

Connie took a quick look around just to be sure it was empty of any Gems, especially towering white ones, then went back to Steven's side while casting the drained robonoid laser aside. "Alright, almost there. How do we get up?"

Steven reached for her hand, seemingly suggesting fusion, only for it to slip away again when his head throbbed.

"I'll have to try floating up there while holding onto you. Carbon's still in a lot of pain, it's a little hard to ignore."

She took one look at the chair again, then winced. "Maybe it'd be better to go up there by yourself. I'd rather stay down below and not take the chance."

After a nod, and a bit more time to ready himself, he breathed in and made a small sprint towards the chair, then leapt for it. To his great relief, he quickly found himself floating up towards the left armrest, steadying his ascent out until he was able to land comfortably on the flat white surface. Connie had reached the base of the chair by then.

"You okay?"

"Yeah! I'm gonna give it a go now! Keep an eye out!"

He wandered up towards the end of the arm rest, which soon began displaying a holo-screen once he drew close enough. The symbol of the three Diamonds shone brightly into his eyes, not the four he had hoped for.

"Alright, let's see…"

With fingers crossed, he tapped in the memorized pattern minus Pink Diamond's tone, the sound louder than ever given the extra size there. Luck paid off as the screen changed to a directory of the chair's own functionality, listing failures in the rest of the networked systems.

"I'm in!" Getting to the communication system itself was simple enough, though the real challenge lay in getting in contact with Lars specifically. Unlike on the jungle moon, he couldn't simply make contact with the nearest ship and have a good chance of it being right, which meant a manual search for the right signal frequency.

After a minute of searching, Connie's anxiety grew enough for her to seek out whatever conversation she could make. "Hey Steven, you feeling any better?"

"A little better! This screen is really bright though!"

It took another minute of searching before finally tracking down the listing for the Sun Incinerator. The moment that a connection was established made so many other moments of relief feel like nothing in comparison.

"Lars! Don't cut this off! It's Steven!"

Lars looked massive when stretched out over so wide a screen, his look of confusion casting a dazzling pink glow over the chair.

" _Steven? Where are you? I mean, where are you calling from, and where are you on screen?_ "

"Bottom right corner I think! On the armrest!"

After a bit of an awkward search, Lars finally spotted his tiny form on the Sun Incinerator's own holo-screen.

" _What's going on? Is that one of the Diamond's chairs?_ "

"Yes! Connie and I are stuck on Colony Elysium! We could really use a pick-up as soon as possible! Just fly near the lab, there's a Gem that can get us to you when you're close enough!"

" _You got it! Setting a course now! Hang in there Steven!_ "

"We owe you bigtime for this!"

The link closed from Lars' end, leaving him staring up at a blinding white screen once more.

"So, now we find Lapis and wait for him to arrive!"

Steven nodded in agreement, and was about to jump back down when a thought occurred to him, one that slowly drew him back to the screen.

"I need to check something first Connie! We probably won't ever have another chance like this! I need to see if there's anything that will help us stop Shungite!"

Connie looked over at the doorway they had come through again, still thankfully devoid of activity. The looming doorway for White Diamond herself remained closed at least, though she still felt a little uneasy about the delay.

"Don't take too long! Someone will notice we're here sooner rather than later!"

That worry was right at the front of his mind while he began skimming through what files were stored in the chair itself. His hope that only the most vital details would be kept at White Diamond's ready was quickly fading, as there seemed to be virtually nothing at all listed under Cold Star Coal. And they certainly weren't sticking around for the main file locations to be restored.

"What was it she said… Incident 21-D…"

His hope was momentarily reignited as that exact listing did show up under Cold Star Carbon's files. It wasn't exactly what he hoped for, but based on Shungite's behaviour in the moment of crisis, anything learned about Carbon herself could turn out to be useful.

What came up was yet another recording of Carbon's housing lab, the exact one Lapis Lazuli had set her own mindscape in.

She was in the recording herself, alongside the Peridot he had seen her working with the first time they shared minds.

It wasn't long at all before alarms began to blare inside the recording, and a near identical scream to the one that had just occurred overwhelmed the audio feed for several seconds, causing the video itself to distort in a unique Gem fashion.

Through the distortion, he could still make out Lapis Lazuli leaving her station for the ramp leading into the dome. " _Cut all power links! Open the hatch!_ "

" _Are you crazy!? You can't go in there now of all times!_ "

" _I have to! You were right, there's too many impurities! I have to remove them before she destroys this whole planet!_ "

The last he saw was the hatch opening, and Lapis Lazuli entering the dome itself, wielding a glob of water, before the recording cut out altogether to his incredible disappointment.

"What!? That's it!? Why even keep this here!?"

"Steven! We have to go now!"

He tore his eyes away from the cut recording, looking in the direction of the great doorway. Thundering footsteps were echoing up the corridor beyond.

They couldn't possibly get through the way they had come before White Diamond arrived.

"Connie! Get ready to grab on!" While he prepared for another leap, he frantically looked around the observation dome for any other kind of way out. After a few passes, his eyes locked onto a small walkway that seemed to extend out back towards another part of the lab.

He pointed at it to ensure Connie knew where to make for, then readied for his jump. "There!"

Off the armchair he flew, flailing towards the ground at an angle until he felt Connie's hand clutch onto his arm, and his hand around hers. The extra weight was hard to ignore, but desperation to escape drove him upward regardless, until they came sprawling to the floor of the walkway balcony just as the giant doors opened at last.

Connie was back on her feet quickly, though she was quick to notice Steven's exhaustion from the latest ordeal. "Steven hurry!"

"Go, go. Get to Lapis, I'll be right…"

There was a chilling rush of wind, accompanied by more heavy footsteps.

White Diamond had walked right up to that balcony, her enormous eyes twisting down to glare right at Steven, the perfectly square pupils almost as big as he was alone.

"I know who you really are, Steven Universe. You can't hide it from the others forever."

Whatever feeling of exhaustion and breathlessness there should have been in Steven's body at that moment was replaced by raw adrenaline. Never before had he sprinted so fast, hacking breath after breath as he fled White Diamond's reaching hand. Connie was just a few steps ahead, too terrified to look back at the giant white hand drawing closer and closer by the second.

At the first bend, she pulled a sharp right and dashed for the corner, pressing herself up against it while keeping an arm out for Steven to grab. As soon as they had a hold on each other, she yanked him clear out of the path of the pursuing hand at last.

"White Diamond… White Diamond… We were actually face to face with White Diamond."

Being incredibly short on breath had taken Steven down to a slump, now too exhausted to even speak. Even with the looming threat of the giant white arm literal metres away from them, Connie was soon slouched down herself for some much needed air.

"I'm sorry we couldn't get the answers you wanted Steven. We'll just have to find our own way to stop Shungite."

He managed a nod while clutching at his aching chest, just focusing solely on getting his breathing back to a regular pace.

"We'll get out of here Connie… We'll make it home…"

A few minutes after White Diamond finally withdrew her hand from the corridor, apparently having given up on catching them herself for the moment, they moved on again. Even with no real means of taking out other Gems they came across, there was still just as much a chance of them being discovered in hiding as there was on the way to finding Lapis Lazuli. Any further fight they would simply have to be about fleeing or outwitting their former captors.

"You didn't agree on a specific location Steven?"

"I didn't think the whole lab would go offline, so I counted on having some way to track her down once Lars was on the way. Just gotta figure it out ourselves now."

They both began to more actively glance through every window they passed, hoping to catch a glimpse of bright blue amidst the dominating white.

When Connie finally spotted her, she lightly tugged Steven over to the window that looked out one of the great chasms that the lab stretched over. In another corridor ahead of them was a figure that looked rather much like Lapis Lazuli.

"She had the right idea, the Sun Incinerator can get in much closer there."

"Let's hope the Rutile twins are up for some fancy flying then."

They raced around through the shortest path they could find until they finally reached the entryway to the corridor. It looked uncomfortably ready to close behind them at just about any further tremor, but there was simply no going back around the other way to be sure. With a shared glance, they slipped through together and began the tense walk out over the gaping depths that only a couple of layers of material separated them from.

"Lapis! We're here! Are you…"

A terrible feeling settled in Steven's stomach immediately when he noticed how motionless Lapis Lazuli was. No acknowledgement of their callout to her, not even a sign of any idle behaviour. Complete stillness.

"Lapis?"

He moved in closer, one step at a time. Still no movement from her.

"Oh no, please…"

A glimmer on her left hand caught his eye. There was a strange rainbow sheen to it.

"Ste-ven? Ste-ven."

She turned around in awkward, almost robotic movements, revealing her face and her horrifyingly frozen smile. Her eyes had completely glazed over, reminding Steven of the mirror's effect on Lapis in a chilling way.

"It, is, good, to, see, you, again, Ste-ven."

"This is your fault, Steven."

His whole body sank a little further at hearing Apatite's voice behind him. Most likely, she had been deliberately waiting for him to find out the truth for himself.

"What is it with you and blaming everyone else for your decisions, Apatite? Why can't you just own up to just how awful you are."

When he felt Connie bump into him, having backed away from Apatite herself as well as her own posse, he took hold of her hand once more.

"Because that is not how Gem society works. We all have our orders and directives from White Diamond, and mine is to neutralize Gems that fail to follow, or even defy those directives. You do not blame the hand that strikes you down when it is the mind controlling it that holds the intent."

After tightening the grip on Connie's hand, Steven turned around at last, taking his eyes off Lapis Lazuli's blank gaze. "She chose to help us. Gems have free will, you're not constantly controlled by White Diamond. And I know that she didn't order you to extract Rose Quartz from me, or to kill Connie just for an experiment."

He kept his gaze away from the nearest window, once again to avoid drawing Apatite's attention to his next move. They couldn't flee the Gems for long, and while he didn't want to repeat the circumstances of Homeworld, they were once again running out of options.

That time however, Apatite was not taking any chances, as three white Angelites equipped with jet boots and specialized whips hovered into view outside the corridor. Ready and waiting to catch them before they even began to fall.

"She doesn't have to. I know the wishes of my Diamond. I am her most trusted advisor. And believe me when I say that-"

She was cut off mid sentence yet again, though for entirely different reasons than the first time.

The three Angelites outside had been cast aside by a cyan Gem that seemed to be covered entirely in technological parts, save for the mouth and jaw that was left exposed in the otherwise closed helmet. She too had jet boots, as well as heavy armaments on her arms. And she was headed straight for that section of the corridor.

Apatite's cold anger grew hot at that moment. A quick glance at the approaching Gem, and she threw all caution aside to charge right for Steven.

"No!"

The next few seconds weren't quite as chaotic as the moment of Carbon's awakening, but only in that the actual events were more contained.

Steven had moved around further to put himself between Connie and Apatite, hugging her close for protection from both her and the approaching them.

Apatite by then had made it two paces down the corridor, pigtails flopping behind in the dash while the Citrines, Aquamarine and Pearl followed behind.

The first window shattered inward from a precise volley of laser blasts from the new Gem, who folded those weapons back into her extended arms to grab hold of both Steven and Connie firmly while also twisting herself around. The second window she smashed through with her right shoulder.

"Hold on!"

Immediately she orientated herself down into the chasm, blasting well past terminal velocity to make the staggering descent into Elysium's depths before the elite Angelites could follow.

As terrifying as the hurtling downward experience was, both of her rescue targets were too caught up in the shock rescue to do anything other than scream out of pure instinct. No struggle, but also no silence from them.

* * *

The shock and panic had worn off by the time they stopped the downward blitz, their rescuer having switched to sweeping through the long-abandoned Kindergartens that only varied from Homeworld's in colour. No attempt to speak with her had been made, not that it would be ideal to hold a conversation in mid air at high speed anyway.

It was clear enough that she was intent on keeping them safe, and on escaping the Angelites. When the latter eventually seemed to have been achieved, she slowed down further, and began a more gradual descent towards her destination.

"Almost there. Hope you're not too sick from that."

Connie felt rather queasy, but a day on nothing but Gem-grown fruit that had next to no substance beyond the required nutrients meant there was little for her stomach to empty itself of anyway.

Steven still felt the need to throw up regardless.

She finally landed at the threshold of a particularly large exit hole, where she set both down with great care, being surprisingly gentle with her bulky arms.

While Steven went to clear his nausea, Connie found a smooth part of the rock to lean against and rebalance herself while looking over the Gem at last.

She had an odd kind of freakish nature to her, in that so many of the external parts were of various colours and sizes, all welded and merged together into a larger exosuit of sorts. Even the helmet looked to be composed of a detached foot like that of Peridot's limb enhancers, and what had presumably once been a robonoid.

Having something to focus on helped ease her spinning head enough to focus herself. "Thanks for the rescue."

The Gem cracked a smile, shrugging those bulked shoulders with a soft grind of mechanical parts. "Been waiting for an opportunity to break you out of there. Come in when you're ready, I'll explain where it's a little more comfortable."

She walked further into the exit hole at that, casting a faint glow over the glassed walls from the various energized parts of her exosuit.

Connie opted to wait a little longer before going over to Steven at last, who by then had gotten through the worst of the impulses.

"Any better?"

He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, then nodded.

"We'll find a way to help Lapis. Eventually. Apatite won't get away with this Steven."

"I'd rather not think about that, okay?"

"Okay." She rested a hand around his shoulders to guide him towards where the Gem had gone. It didn't take long at all to discover that it had in fact become an entryway to a sort of hovel inside the rock structure, with several other holes having been connected together or blocked up to form a surprisingly cozy room that was well concealed from outside observation.

A mangled table took up one wall, littered with various Gemtech components and parts. Another bore a surprisingly crisp image of a bright pink Gem with a cheesy grin that looked entirely too precious for a Homeworld Gem.

The Gem's exosuit was in another corner, though the Gem herself seemed to have vacated it already.

"So, whatcha think of Turquenite's little hideout?"

They both turned around, and nearly jumped in fright at seeing Turquenite herself out of the suit, what little there was of her anyway.

A clean cut went right across her torso below the shoulders at an uneven angle, something that had apparently cleaved right through her gemstone as well. And yet, despite being less than half of a Gem, what remained looked perfectly fine. Her agility she even demonstrated by effortlessly clambering around the room with swinging motions, rather akin to primates moving through trees.

With a soft laugh, she flung herself across the space and spun around to land back in the exosuit with a thud. Since only the upper torso had to open, and thus close around her, she was back to full bipedal mobility within a single second.

It was a truly astounding sight to behold.

"That's… how… I mean…"

Turquenite kept the helmet off that time, cracking a wide grin before laughing again joyfully. "Wasn't easy the first few thousand years, but once I learned how to form only the body parts I could maintain, all I had to do was wait for random junk to fall down here!" She extended her exo hand to them, a mash of varied finger-units and a destabilizer prong for a thumb. "It's so good to meet you Steven Universe! Wouldn't believe just how much I've wanted to meet an actual Crystal Gem!"

He was still a little dazed from his own nausea, and rather upset about Lapis Lazuli, keeping him from making more than a futile mumble in response.

"Oh, right, the whole rescue thing." She brought her other arm up and physically grabbed the forearm segment to rotate it around with a few clicks, allowing her to bring up her own crude holo-screen. "Hacking into Elysium's communication relay was one of the first things I learned to do down here. So many reports about the Earth Rebellion went through it, all those tales of great battles and Gems standing up for themselves, just amazing. How could I not come up and break Rose Quartz's human sub-Gem and his friend?"

Since Steven was still not in the mood to talk, Connie took up that role instead. "How'd you know where to find us? With the power knocked out, that was some pretty close timing there."

"Oh, Carbon having another fit? Psh, didn't even take out the Angelite signals. Just went to where they were deployed, noticed you two in trouble and took the chance. Easy."

After a report from the Angelites confirmed they had found no trace of the 'fugitives', Turquenite shrugged gleefully and closed it back down into her arm. "After all this time they still haven't found me. Or any of the others for that matter."

That got Steven's attention at last. "Others? There's even more Off Colours?"

Turquenite nodded while starting to stride over to that sole image on the wall. "It's hard for the groups on other colonies to keep contact with how heavily Homeworld has been cracking down on security protocols, but us Elysium Gems have managed to stay connected with each other, even if we have to keep spread out."

Her other hand came to rest on the image at last, gently stroking around the bush of pink hair. "Pink's right around the other side of the planet. Don't know how I manage things without her by my side, but somehow I do."

Steven and Connie looked to each other yet again, then past Turquenite's shoulder at the picture.

"Pink?"

"It's unbelievable how upset they got, just because she didn't want to be called Morganite. From the moment she emerged, she knew she was Pink Emerald." Turquenite sighed in a way that made clear just how deep her longing was. "I'd never let any Gem take that from her."

The pair looked at the picture for a while longer. Pink Emerald did vaguely resemble the Emeralds they had seen. On closer inspection, she even had more pronounced fangs that seemed to be a unique trait to them. And yet, her face was that of pure innocent joy, about as far from the revelling menace of the Emerald they had fought not so long ago as anything could be.

After the long, agonizing ordeal, such a wholesome display of affection lifted so many of Steven's burdening worries and concerns, at least for the time being. The situation itself was bleak, but they were still in the company of a Gem who had quite literally overcome the previously impossible, not that finding love was by any means impossible.

"She sounds like a wonderful Gem to be with. As much as I'd like to stay and meet her, we do kinda have to get back to the surface for our escape off this planet."

Once again, Turquenite smiled, though this time it was less elated and more understanding. "I listened in on that call for help as well, got the proximity alarm on a hotline. We'll know the moment your friend arrives in orbit, I can get you two back up there when the time comes." She stepped away from the picture at last. "Just need to give the Angelites time to move far enough away, gonna be a hectic flight otherwise."

Connie hummed in a moment of thought. "You've got this pretty well planned out huh?"

"Well, y'know, a few thousand years of not being able to do anything other than stare at a screen that's playing out Diamond reports does that. Memorized all the search patterns, pretty much all the situation plans." She flexed one of her arms inside the exosuit to run an on-the-spot maintenance check. "But since Apatite doesn't play by the rules, I figured a little personal intervention would be best."

"We really appreciate it, Turquentine." Steven tried to remain positive, but it still ended up reminding him of the cost left behind. "I just wish Lapis Lazuli didn't have to pay the price."

The smile finally faded from Turquentine's face, though she was still a long way off from looking sad, aside from the awkward rub over her bald head. "Oh, Apatite got to her then I take it? I wasn't really paying attention to her."

Steven sighed at his own highly unusual inability to keep things positive on that occasion. "You couldn't have known she was in danger, I didn't mean to sound like I'm blaming you for not getting there sooner." After an awkward glance to Connie, he looked back up at the tall Gem. "Don't suppose you can get her away from Apatite somehow? Keep her safe?"

"I can give it a go when things aren't so hectic. Homeworld tends to throw Mystic Gems down so they shatter in these depths anyway. We've got quite a few bubbled instead, so they don't have to keep existing like that." She sighed herself, folding her arms up with another soft grind of metal against metal. "Word is that Rose Quartz had some real amazing healing powers. Not talking about fixing myself mind you, there's more than just Mystics that could use your help. When you come back here I mean."

"Come back?"

"Yeah, when you're ready to start taking the fight back to Homeworld, to liberate Gemkind from the Diamonds and their elite. You'll have a lot more support when the time comes than you might think. I know Pink and I will be there the moment you need us."

"Maybe getting a little ahead on the whole New Rebellion plan…" Another look to Connie made it clear that he needed to keep matters appeased, despite his own doubts. "But maybe once we've stopped Shungite, we can start fighting back. There's a lot of corrupt Gems back on Earth that need to be healed."

Turquenite nodded, slowly unfolding her arms again. "I trust your word, Steven. I'll let the others know that we've finally made contact with the Crystal Gems, and we can start preparing for when you come back. Maybe even hijack another ship or two, start building a rebel fleet."

"I think Lars would be fine with becoming a Gem admiral." Steven smiled at the thought for a while, then looked back up to her. "I still want to resolve things peacefully if it's at all possible. But until then, tell all the other Off Colours, the Mystics, and any other Homeworld outcasts, we're not giving up."

The round of smiles that his little speech brought on was interrupted by a beep from Turquenite's arm. She didn't even need to look at it, instead going right for picking both of them up in her arms once more.

"Your friend just arrived! Steven, if you can make that shield of yours work without slowing me down, now's the time. Connie, get in contact with your friend, tell him to slow down and fly over the crevasse, but not to stop even for a moment. The Angelites can tear entire ships apart with their whips if they get the chance."

Her helmet folded back down as she began jogging out through the hole, Steven adjusting his posture to free his arm for the shield, and Connie gripping around her arm in such a way that let her remain comfortably within the screen's camera area.

"Ready?"

"Yeah!"

The visor on Turquenite helmet lit up in a flashy purple in time with her cracking grin. "Let's fly you two out of here!"

She leapt off the rim of the hole, waiting until she was fully clear before firing her jet boots up, beginning the rocket ascent at last.

Once they had steadied out, Connie finally made the call.

"Lars! Any trouble yet?"

" _There's a few ships coming to intercept. Wait, where are you now?_ "

"Plan changed slightly, we've got a different Gem helping us out! Listen, you need to fly close to the lab without actually stopping, it's too dangerous otherwise! Turquenite can catch up to you if we time it right! Got all that?"

Lars looked away from the screen to relay instructions to the other Gems, an expression of concern present when he looked back. " _The Twins aren't confident in high speed, low altitude flying, but we'll try. Rhodonite will be at the rear airlock waiting to help you two in. We're about two minutes from the lab itself._ "

"Got it! Just stay away from any white Gems you see out in the air!"

She closed the call to avoid distracting Lars further, and to ensure she concentrated on keeping hold herself as Turquenite's ascent path began to sway about more and more wildly.

"Turbulence?"

"Not quite. The Angelites are closing in."

Steven glanced around worriedly, suddenly feeling far less confident about using his shield while travelling at high speed. Tilting it even a little into a dragging angle could throw Turquenite off in a catastrophic way, and keeping it steady while under assault from flying whip-Gems and in the wake of a starship didn't sound quite so manageable anymore.

The frequency of those ascent changes grew higher as they began passing by the lowest reaches of the lab itself, as well as parts of the city that had grown in under it out of a search for what space they could get. Their pursuers were either drawing closer without revealing themselves visually just yet, or they were simply growing in number.

Some time after the open sky became visible again, the first of the Angelites made her move for them.

"Steven now!"

He braced himself while Turquenite twisted around to give him full view of the crackling white whip that was racing towards them. Not an ideal angle to block from, but one he had to work with all the same.

The shield materialized right before impact, dissipating the energy with a loud snap, sending the whip itself back at the Angelite who had to retreat back into the walls of the Kindergarten to avoid its explosive backlash.

"Almost there! Keep doing that Steven and we'll be fine!"

"I'll try!"

The crevasse grew wider and wider, more of the barren rock surrounding the lab's surface coming into view. Now that there was actually time to look up at it, he finally noticed that there was a clear lack of exit holes in the area. Given the purpose of the lab itself, it seemed to be a deliberate choice.

Gazing upward also meant he was first to catch the gold glimmer of the Sun Incinerator as it began to close in from the far end of the crevasse itself.

"There they are!"

And a few larger ships not too far behind. The Sun Incinerator itself seemed to be barreling down right above the surface at much greater speed than he expected.

Turquenite had already taken note of the unfolding situation. "They're going too fast for a sharp handover! Gonna have to catch up to them further on! Brace!"

She spun around again and made a hard turn towards the same path as the Sun Incinerator itself, keeping low as it hurtled overhead towards the main Elysium cityscape.

"I hope that pilot they've got knows her stuff!"

From her back emerged a pair of stabilizer fins, allowing her to remain even as she powered on in the wake of the Sun Incinerator as it began weaving and dodging Gem structures and non-military craft alike.

The residual heat in the air was causing Steven and Connie to sweat and gasp, able to do little as their eyesight turned bleary.

"I can barely see!"

"I should've welded you two some goggles or something when I had the chance! Sorry!"

The lurching and weaving grew worse as they gradually closed in, the density of the city itself forcing increasingly drastic turns to avoid any collision. Worse, the hum of the pursuing ships only seemed to get louder as the far more experience pilots gained ground on them.

When they finally pulled through the worst of the wake, Turquenite adjusted her grip on them again. Ahead, she could make out the open airlock of the Sun Incinerator at last, and a maroon fusion standing in it.

"Get ready you two! Almost there!"

It wasn't long before they could make out Rhodonite properly, her lower arms gripping each side of the airlock fiercely so that she could lean out and extend her upper arms towards them as much as possible.

"Hurry! We're running out of space to fly in!"

The air pocket behind the ship gave something of a reprieve for all three, the gap between Rhodonite's reach and that of Steven and Connie growing shorter and shorter by the second.

"Floor it Turquenite!"

"I'm trying! Believe me!"

Just past the hull, Connie could see the thinning space ahead. They had seconds at most before the Sun Incinerator would have to hard maneuver again.

"Turq!"

"Grab her!"

With a hearty yell, she boosted herself to less than a metre distance from Rhodonite, and used that extra momentum to hurl the pair right at her waiting arms.

As soon as she saw her grab hold of them both and haul them in, she gave a teasing salute and swan dived right down into the depths well before the Angelites could catch up.

Rhodonite kept a tight hold around them both until the airlock closed, feet braced against the frame to keep from sliding out. "They're here Lars!"

As soon as the rush of air stopped, she let go of them both and hastily scrambled to her feet. "Oh no, are either of you hurt? Was I squeezing too hard?"

"We're fine Rhodonite."

Steven attempted to stand as well, only for the ship to lurch wildly as they presumably made to escape the tighter confines of the city. He was spared from crashing into Connie as she stumbled around herself by a quick clutch at his shoulder by Rhodonite.

"I can't believe you two actually escaped a White Diamond base!"

"We'll tell you all about it on the way back to Earth! Right now we have to get out of here!" He waited until the swaying stopped to slip free of her hold and get Connie up as well, stumbling with her towards the corridor that led to the bridge, Rhodonite right behind.

Arriving on the bridge itself was incredibly relieving, even if tension was running higher than ever as they weaved through the upper reaches of the city for a final escape trajectory away from Elysium at last.

Lars nearly leapt out of his seat to hug them both when he noticed them, instead settling for a happy smile that sadly didn't last as long as it should have.

"This is kicking the snot out of the thrusters! Anything's worth getting you both out, just saying!"

Over at her console, Padparadscha gasped in delight. "Our attempt to rescue Steven and Connie will be a success!"

"For once, I choose to believe that's our future Padpa!"

Both Rutiles yelped as they grazed over a building, causing a loud screech of metal before they pulled clear.

"We might've torn a hole in the hull!"

"We definitely tore a hole in that number crunching block!"

It did at least mean they were free of further obstacles, which meant being exposed to attack by the pursuing ships, but also meant they had a lot more freedom to dodge and evade.

"Twins! How long until we can hyper-speed away?"

Rutile Left glanced over at Rhodonite, who was only just getting back into her seat, while Rutile Right frantically worked to get the thrusters ready for the jump.

"Maybe thirty seconds to clear enough of the atmosphere?"

Steven and Connie by then had moved to each side of Lars' seat for a more secure place to hold onto while they raced on out of Elysium's gravity well, only for Rhodonite to yelp.

"Lars! There's a big ship coming up ahead!"

"Onscreen!"

The main display switched to a view of Elysium's surface below, where a giant white arm was rising up. The fingers began to curl in save for the index that instead pointed right at them.

"Fingergun? Fingergun!"

"No! Not fingergun Lars! Fingercannon!"

"FINGERCANNON!?"

"Fingercannon is preparing to fire!"

"Twins! We're out of time, punch it!"

Both Rutiles looked to each other momentarily, then punched the screen at the same time.

Lars was only spared fainting by Steven quickly grabbing his wrist and keeping him awake by shaking it.

"I predict that the Rutile twins will mistake a science fiction movie quote as being literal! How amusing!"

All of the others yelled in panic at that moment as they watched White Diamond's ship open fire, shooting an immense white beam of energy into the depths of space right across their path.

* * *

Once again, White Diamond was gazing out over the stars, turned fully away from the doorway when Apatite entered. All of her Gems had been ordered back to her ship, Teal Pearl included, leaving her feeling uncomfortably alone for the first time in her existence.

The long silence that followed well after she reached the designated waiting spot only added to that. She fully expected to be blamed for the escape, despite having done quite literally everything she possibly could have under the circumstances.

"Apatite, I am deeply disappointed."

Just as expected.

"I am sorry my clarity, I do not know just how Turquenite got wind of our-"

"Silence. That is exactly what I am disappointed in you for."

Apatite blinked in confusion. "The fact that I couldn't predict-"

"I said silence!"

White Diamond lifted her foot and set it down to the right ever so slightly, but her size gave it enough force to send a loud clap through the whole dome. Apatite went deathly silent for that.

"You've grown too lax, too comfortable in your position of authority. You make decisions without consulting me, you pretend to know the fullness of my plans. You dare to assume my intent!"

The words had such sharpness to them, that the isolation Apatite found herself in turned to sheer dread. Never had she heard White Diamond raise her voice like that, and now she was the sole target of her otherwise unheard of anger.

"You ruined one of the best Lapis Lazulis to have ever emerged from this planet. Her quality rivalled that of her Star counterparts, thousands of years of diligent, unwavering service in line with her fellow scientists. And you dared to ruin her of your own accord?"

"She betrayed-"

White Diamond lashed her hand out at Apatite without actually turning around, sending a vicious beam of pure white energy that caused her to crumple down in agony, but still intact. Purely so that she would hear the rest.

"The Cold Star Project has been far too long in the making to risk further complications now. My instructions to the team were quality of work above all else. Now, I will have to take a direct role in Carbon's stabilization, as well as the formation of the rest of the Army. Time away from Homeworld, because you developed personal feelings of betrayal, and even dared to act upon them."

Scorch marks lined Apatite's extremities, and her once pristine pigtails had singed and frazzled. Nothing that couldn't be undone with a good reformation session, but the point had been made to her in the most bitter of ways all the same.

"I'm sending you back to Homeworld. There you will stay until I can deal with you properly. You are meant to be our best defence against free thinking, not the purveyor of it."

With her pride, as well as her status stripped away, just like that, there was nothing left for Apatite to say. All she could do was turn around and limp her way out of the observatory in utter shame. Of all things, what hurt most was the very notion that Steven had been right about her after all.

* * *

"Gently now, gently."

There were quite a number of disconcerting metal groans coming from the ramshackle spacecraft that Peridot was piloting at that very moment. Keeping it in the air at all was a challenge, keeping up with Pearl's very specific landing instructions seemed impossible.

It was almost too much for Priyanka to watch, knowing that the best chance of seeing Connie again was a poorly constructed metal mess that was mostly composed of material and parts salvaged from millenia old colony ships. Doug was doing his utmost to be supportive for her, despite how much it was hurting him inside as well.

For Greg, it had been a nightmarish situation of anxiety and uncertainty, and then it had happened all over again. And yet, all he could do was watch the vain attempts at pulling together a horribly outdated, and FTL-incapable ship on the vague hope that it would actually accomplish anything other than being an empty hope.

The ship itself collapsing into the beach on touchdown felt like a sharp stab to all three parents.

"Peridot! I said gently!"

"Do you really think I rushed this Pearl!?"

While the two began to argue rather heatedly, both Lapis and Gradie slowly made their way over from the beach house. The argument itself didn't help their already low mood.

"Pearl, I'm sorry, our experiment didn't work."

The argument was brought to a cold halt, Peridot sinking back into the wrecked ship, Pearl burying her face in her hands again.

"There's just no way to carry that much oxygen that far out with water alone."

Gradie let out a long sigh. "At this point, we're gonna have to hope that they've found their own way to escape. Because I don't-"

A soft mrowl from Lion drew the attention of everyone. Ever since the capture he had been far more lethargic. To see him suddenly standing up and padding the sand impatiently was too out of the ordinary to ignore.

Of them all, it was Pearl who decided to approach him. "What is it?"

Right before her eyes, a portion of his mane glowed, through which Steven and Connie emerged with deep gasps for air, collapsing to the hot sand with hysterical bouts of laughter at finally being back on Earth.

"Oh my goodness you're both safe!"

The onslaught of tight embraces that followed lasted several minutes, everyone too frantic with overwhelming relief to actually hear what the others were saying. Not too long after, Garnet and Amethyst joined in the reunion after noticing the sudden spike in activity, spreading the joy at their return that much further.

Once again, Steven had beaten the overwhelming odds of escaping capture by Homeworld, and better yet, with both Connie and himself doing it unscathed.

And to top it all off, Lars and the Off Colours were that much closer to Earth, mere weeks away at last.

While the fates of Turquenite and Lapis Lazuli were present at the forefront of Steven's mind, for the moment his sole concern was taking the time to relax, and feel grateful for being amongst family and friends once more.

Preparing for the inevitable battle with Shungite could wait a while longer.

The black screen closed in around them all in a wide star, then popped altogether.


	11. Beach City Tour

"Steven, can I ask you something?"

Steven and Lapis were at that moment sitting on one of the seaview benches, looking out over the late morning waves for quite some time by that point. Since the return from Elysium, it had been two weeks of virtually nothing other than spending quality time with the others in various ways. For Lapis, it involved just sitting with each other, and enjoying the peaceful existence that Earth so generously gave them both when there wasn't another crisis to deal with.

It was thus a little surprising when the question about asking a question was posed. He had gotten no impression that she had something to ask about before.

"Sure, I'm always listening Lapis."

She turned towards him a little, closing her hand up, and then resting it her lap, and then lifting it up in readiness to speak, then setting it back down again when she went back to silence. It couldn't be any more obvious that she was quite nervous about the question itself.

It took another few tries before she finally got it out. "I want to start dating, or at least practise what it's like to be on one, preferably someone from around here who actually understands us Gems better than most. Will you help me?"

That was so far off his radar of potential questions that Steven very nearly gasped in genuine shock at her request. He thankfully avoided it enough to settle into giving it some serious thought instead.

"I'll help you of course, I guess I just don't know off the top of my head how to go about it. It's not quite something I've started doing myself you know."

Lapis began to drum her fingers nervously. "I didn't want to make things awkward or difficult for you, but, you know pretty much everyone in this town." Her nervous habit ended with her sighing in an attempt to calm herself. "Should I go ask Greg instead?"

"I think Dad's trying to not get involved in any Gem relationships these days. What you really need is a way to get to know the eligible of Beach City. Talking with them, getting to know them, seeing who you resonate well with, right?"

"Right, yes, of course." Lapis bumped her heels together while giving it more thought herself. "I haven't really talked with anyone other than Sadie, Buck, Jenny and Sour Cream though. And I've seen enough from _Camp Pining Hearts_ to know that it wouldn't be a good idea to upset the friendship when others are involved, so..."

"I understand." Steven tapped his chin for more thought as well. "Jamie's a real nice guy, but after what happened with Garnet he might feel a little awkward. Ronaldo is still hurt about Jane breaking up with him, and I don't think Peedee is looking for that kind of relationship yet."

The dwindling list of people that actually knew the Gems well was starting to occur to him, further lowering his mood. "And from there it gets a little more complicated. I think spending time with Barbara might make things even more awkward with Sadie. Either they've previously been in relationships, or they know so little about us that it'd take a while to help them understand."

The eventual sigh from Lapis said it all. "I don't want to sound impatient, but having to explain how different I am from humans every time I meet someone isn't what I had in mind. I can already see that ending things before they begin, over and over..."

"Maybe we should start easy then. Jamie is still pretty close to an ideal case. So long as we're upfront about what you're looking for, and that you're just trying things out before making any real commitment, I think it'll go over okay. Won't hurt if he's not getting his hopes up, right?"

Lapis nodded, beginning to look confident in matters at long last. Even her posture straightened up a little for it. "Okay, I can get behind that. No commitments, no pressure, nothing to worry about. Thanks Steven."

"He'll be off the mail route soon, I'll work out a time and place to meet him. And don't worry, I'll be there for you as a wingman."

That made Lapis smirk. "This is really happening huh? Never thought I'd see the day I needed a wingman."

Steven reached his hand up to her shoulder, beaming a small, but very genuine smile at her. "I'm proud of you Lapis. You've come so far from wanting to leave Earth the moment you could. It's so wonderful to see you this happy."

"Thanks to you and Peridot, Steven. You've both gone that extra step to make me feel welcome here." She couldn't resist pulling him into a soft hug, making the most of how it felt to embrace another like that. "I don't know what I'd do if you didn't make it back from Elysium."

A nod was all that felt appropriate for Steven to give, so he left it at that. Another day, another resolution for a friend.

* * *

Gradie had practically memorized the tidal pattern by that point. All that time spent sitting at the top of the lighthouse, legs dangling over the edge, chin resting on her arms resting on the railing, staring at the ocean.

Her self-imposed penance. For failing to defeat Apatite at the Galaxy warp, for hurting Peridot with her violent exit from Amazonite, and for running away as her at all.

For letting Star Lapis Lazuli win, by turning her against the Crystal Gems through indoctrination alone.

"Lonely Blade… Is this how you feel? Never able to make friends, because your innate drive towards isolationism and a lack of social skills means you drive everyone away with your presence alone?"

A few seagulls squawked in the distance.

"Oh Steven, why did you let me binge watch all seven movies? As if the undead brother in Five wasn't depressing enough, having to watch a civil war break out and even more potential friends fall in Six is just not what I needed to see the hero go through."

Some more seagulls squawked.

"And then two weeks of watching the latest season of _Mystery on Pentaggle Island_. Why doesn't anyone else here like that show?"

One of those seagulls landed on the railing, tilted its head to look over the sulking Gem, then flapped its wings with a loud call at her.

"Isn't it enough that I'm trying? I can't just shut out my feelings because someone else doesn't like them, and I can't just change how I feel in a couple of weeks. How do I even know that this isn't how I'd feel if Star never got involved in my existence? "

The seagull tilted its head, then gave yet another squawk.

"And this is where you abruptly morph into Jasper and tell me how awful Shungite is. Where's Steven when I need him?"

At that point the seagull flew off to rejoin the others thanks to the door leading back into the lighthouse being opened.

"It's okay Ronaldo, I'm not about to-"

Gradie had turned her head, readying to get up and fly off to avoid yet another awkward conversation with her 'supposed' landlord, only to see it was Garnet that had made her way up there. Notably by the stairs, instead of simply leaping from the ground.

"Feel like talking?"

After several failed attempts to speak, Gradie's face settled into quite a bemused state. "You've already seen all the different ways this conversation goes, and all the points where I groan and fly off in a huff, right?"

Garnet adjusted her visor. "This isn't something I planned ahead for, not even a glimpse. A friendly conversation doesn't work like that."

When Gradie went back to staring over the ocean, Garnet decided to sit down beside her, adopting a similar position. "I'm not expecting you to say anything. This is just an invitation to talk, one on one. Not a word to the others from me."

Nothing was said in response.

"My only concern is ensuring the Crystal Gems remain stable, and that no member feels left out. All of us are worried about you, Gradie. Just so you know."

Gradie held that stare across the ocean until she could bear the silence no longer, breaking under her own urge to yell, but still toning it down to a simple sigh.

"I screwed up. It's my fault we were caught out by Apatite, and by Shungite. It's my fault Steven and Connie were captured! It's a miracle they escaped at all!" Her hands were shaking when she finally made herself stop long enough to calm down from her anxiety, difficult as that was. "You can say none of that was my fault, but you can't say I'm not to blame for what I did to Peridot. So yes, I'm going to keep blaming myself for it all in one nice bundle of shame."

Her breath became a hard shudder. "It's what I deserve after all, isn't it? For being a fusion hater."

Garnet tilted her head, her lower lip tightening in just a little. "No, it isn't. Because you're not."

"Oh yes, I don't 'hate' fusion, I just completely misunderstand it, and choose to be ignorant by pushing it away at every opportunity. Not the same by definition, but might as well be in practise."

"Gradie, I understand why you feel the way you do about it."

"And there it is. 'I understand, but you're still wrong in every way'. Come on, I know there's a 'but' coming, might as well get it over with so I can groan and fly off like I said."

Garnet hummed, then silently shook her head. "No 'buts' here. Except the ones we're using to sit down with."

Gradie ground her teeth awkwardly.

"Being a Crystal Gem doesn't mean conforming to our ideals at the cost of those that are personal to ourselves. We all have different minds, different methods, different ways of interacting with the world. What matters is our actions, and our intent behind those actions."

She left a pause to consider revealing what she had learned from Lapis, ultimately deciding to not bring it up herself. Upsetting yet another bond of trust on Gradie's part was not the way to begin healing relations with her.

"Your intent has never been malicious, Gradie. I know that, you know that, we all do. You've only acted out of fear, the kind that I hope none of us ever have to experience ourselves. You don't deserve the blame for what you did as a result of what Star Lapis Lazuli twisted you into thinking, into believing."

Gradie tilted her head back, looking ready to get up and leave anyway, then lowered it back down with a prolonged sigh. Easy as it seemed to just take what absolvement she could at that moment and be done with it, running off with the proverbial olive branch was suddenly not something she wanted to do anymore.

"Garnet, I appreciate what you're trying to say…" Her nails began to drag along the flaking paint of the railing she was leaning on. "I said some pretty nasty things about you to Lapis when she talked about being trapped as Malachite. I felt like I had found someone who understood what I had been through enough to just, let loose with. That wasn't fear talking, that was my big fat foot-in-mouth-up-to-the-ankle talking."

Even she ended up cringing at the mental imagery, but that was soon surpassed by the feeling of strange relief at finally confessing. "Sometimes I'll just say rude things without thinking, but there's no excusing what I said that night. I can't even say that it won't happen again, like there's this knowledge that I'll inevitably spout off horrible things about whatever I don't like without warning."

She flinched at the seemingly inevitable hand on the shoulder moment, feeling Ruby's gemstone pressing in through the fabric of her long sleeve.

"Being honest is difficult, as is wanting to change. But admitting that failure is inevitable, and continuing in spite of that is harder still. Failure doesn't have to be the end of it, so long as you have the commitment to try again, and again. Even if you make mistakes, even if your impulsive mouth gets the better of you, trying to improve, and overcome your own flaws is a truly noble goal. Every single one of the Crystal Gems has had to fall down, and get back up to improve at some point in their existence. There's no shame when you're working to better yourself, no matter what you might think."

Gradie hummed for a while herself, taking it all to heart in turn, letting things sink in properly. Now was not the time to ruin the moment with the irony of saying whatever came on impulse again.

"Garnet, I want you to know, I respect you." One more sigh, and she finally worked up the courage to turn her head and gaze at those three eyes. "I honestly didn't expect you to be so forgiving, or supportive. I really am grateful for that."

Her hands clutched onto the railing as she began hoisting herself up with a soft clack of her sandals on the concrete floor below. "I do want things to be different, I want to be different. I can't promise that I'll ever willingly fuse, but at the very least I will promise that I'll try and see more of the positives than the negatives of fusion for others from now on."

The smile on Garnet's face was pure, staying that way even as she rematerialized her visor. "Never forget that we're ready to catch you when you fall. You're not alone in this."

Gradie nodded as she began extending her wings. "When you get the chance, could you let Peridot know I'd like to apologize to her properly? And uh, if she's not ready for that, would there happen to be anything I can do as a Crystal Gem until then?"

"Peridot has been in a similar position, when she wanted to apologize to Lapis for holding her captive. I'm sure she'll be very open to that apology." Garnet turned her head back towards the lighthouse while making an adjustment to her visor. "I am seeing something odd, though it is in the same vague area as The Siphon. I can send Amethyst and Pearl instead if you'd rather sit this one out."

"No, no I've gotten over what happened there, thanks to Steven. I wouldn't mind the company anyway though." She extended her wings for a moment, then folded them back in temporarily. "I think I'll go see Peridot myself right now actually. Could you ask them not to leave without me, please?"

Garnet nodded in her own silent way.

"I won't waste this second chance of mine any longer. You can count on that."

She took off with a quiet rush of air around her icy wings, headed right for the barn in the distance.

It gave Garnet a moment to think, and gaze into the future a little more.

"Gradie and Amethyst, fighting… something? Someone? Why can't I see their opponent?"

* * *

"Steven! Who is this?"

Steven reached up behind his head out of slight nervousness that Lapis would back away from Kofi's typical, and yet still louder than average habit of addressing anyone and everyone.

To his relief, she instead stepped forward with a soft smile, even going so far as to extend her hand.

"Lapis Lazuli, one of the newer Crystal Gems. Steven's talked about you and your shop quite a bit."

Kofi eyed both her and Steven quite a bit with his usual amount of suspicion, only relenting into shaking her hand when he was entirely satisfied with how she had conducted herself so far. "I hope you're not the sort of that likes to break my sign, bust through the window of my car to steal my phone, reignite long standing feuds or abduct fellow citizens of Beach City from their very homes!"

"I'm the sort that can manipulate water, fly around, and knows how to drink a milkshake without getting a brain freeze." Her grin widened a little to one side. "Then again I don't have a brain, so maybe that's cheating."

After more staring, Kofi finally broke out into laughter. "A Gem with a real sense of humour! What is the world coming to?" He released the grip on her hand at last, resting both on his sides. "So, what brings you to Fish Stew Pizza? I hope it is not to show off fancy water tricks!"

Lapis glanced back over her shoulder to Steven, who nodded back, then returned to Kofi. "I'm meeting someone here with Steven, if that's okay. They're both paying customers, so I was kinda hoping…"

"That you could freeload a seat with them just for chit chat?" For once, he asked that question with less of an aggressive tone, reassuring for the other two. That much was confirmed when he shrugged nonchalantly. "It is better than that Fryman boy freeloading off our wi-fi. Very well! You may, chit chat here."

"Great, thank you Mr Pizza."

After a nod and gruff, he made his way back to the kitchen, leaving Lapis to pick a place for their chat while Steven made his way over to the counter.

Kiki was waiting there patiently, smiling at being able to talk with Steven at last. "So, this is the Lapis that's been hanging out with Jenny and the others huh? Not the one that appeared in a giant pillar of water?"

"She's the one that borrowed the ocean a while back, yeah. Gradie doesn't feel ready to hang out with humans yet."

"Well, it's nice seeing a new face around here. She seems really nice, and she made Dad laugh in the first conversation. That's impressive."

Steven glanced over at Lapis again, who by then had settled for a seat towards the back. "Yeah, she's really come a long way."

When Lapis noticed them looking, and gave a small wave as a result, Kiki decided to do the same. "So, if you don't mind my asking, who's she meeting here? Sounded kinda serious."

"Jamie, and it's not really that serious. She wanted to try dating someone from Beach City as a test of sorts, even if it doesn't go anywhere, and he agreed to help out." Steven leaned over the counter a little more for a softer voice. "Things didn't go so well when he fell for Garnet, so I'm staying to help keep things light between them."

"Aw, Steven, that's so sweet. If you need an extra body in the conversation to keep things going, just let me know! So long as there aren't any other customers, Dad won't mind."

"What won't I mind, Kiki? You'd better not be planning on bailing this shift!"

Kiki cringed at her father's voice booming from the kitching. "Nothing Dad! I ain't leaving the premises until it's over! You know that!"

Steven chuckled nervously. "You're welcome to join in, I'm sure. I'm gonna wait for Jamie before ordering anyway."

The timing of Jamie arriving at that moment anyway was incredibly convenient. He had taken the advice to heart, having changed from the mailman uniform into something respectable, but not overly fancy or formal. Just enough of a casual nature there to make it clear he was on board.

"Hey Steven, Kiki." While waving to the pair, he glanced over at Lapis, who smiled and waved to him in turn with just a hint of a deep blue tinge on her cheeks. He did the same while making his way over. "And you must be Lapis."

Her smile moved into a grin while she got up from her seat and outstretched her hand once again. "I most certainly am."

After exchanging glances for a moment, Jamie knelt down to take her hand in a very dramatic matter, even going so far as to lightly kiss it while outstretching his other. "Truly a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He held the moment before breaking out into a soft chuckle and standing back up. "Hope that wasn't too awkward, it's hard to pass up an opportunity to practise the craft on an occasion such as this."

The outburst of giggles from Lapis herself, including a few snorts, seemed to confirm her own feelings on the matter. "Oh, that was amazingly awkward alright." When the giggles settled down, her smile returned to that natural state. "You're already more convincing than half the actors on _Camp Pining Hearts_."

Jamie took that compliment for all its worth, instinctively reaching for the back of her head. "Nice of you to say. Especially since they get paid for their acting."

"Psh, that's probably why they suck!"

An odd quiet fell at that point, until Jamie chuckled again and looked back over to the counter. "I'd better make that order, Steven's probably hungry after all. And I don't want to take up too much of your time, Lapis."

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." She followed him over to the counter anyway, smiling at Kiki as well, then at Steven. "You two joining us still?"

"Absolutely."

Kiki took another look in the direction of the kitchen before shrugging. "Sounds like the two of you are hitting it off already, but okay. So, Jamie, Steven, what can I get for you two?"

* * *

"I'm starting to worry, Gradie."

"Because this is feeling just like last time? I know exactly what you mean."

Unlike last time, there was no subdued distrust between Gradie and Amethyst. The secrets were out, all that needed to be said had been, and most importantly they were actually eager for some simpler tasks after the nail-biting action of the past month.

Simple was also how they could both describe tracking down the Liddicoatite in the Alpha Kindergarten, and even that they hadn't been able to do without nearly letting it end in disaster.

"So, we're not gonna chat about the Crystal Gems before Garnet's time while we're still looking, right? I don't wanna keep you distracted again."

"Psh, it was entirely my fault. Getting gored in the back like that was sloppy, so many ways to avoid it without even really trying. Just reminded me to pay more attention to my surroundings at all times."

When no opportunity presented itself to demonstrate just that, she rolled her shoulders and pressed on, leading the way through the dense jungle in her aimless search for any sign of their target.

Despite the assurance, Amethyst still felt uneasy. "I should've warned you sooner, or tried to deflect the charge. Even just remembering to pick you up after you poofed so Shungite couldn't would have meant Liddicoatite would be safe in the Temple right now."

"Amethyst…" Gradie let out that moment of guilt over the trade for her safety in a long breath, then looked back to Amethyst herself. "I don't blame you at all. And I'm trying to blame myself less for these things anyway. Like Garnet said, we make mistakes, so we learn from them and move on. This time I'll actually remember that I can dissolve into a puddle if needed."'

The sentiment proved to be enough to lift Amethyst's mood back up enough to be more inquisitive again. "I've been meaning to ask you about that. I've learned how to shapeshift into a lot of things, but liquids is something else entirely. Or is it something completely separate from shapeshifting?"

"I think it's separate, since it's about altering the state of the physical form, not the shape of it. So by definition, it's not 'shape' shifting." She smirked to herself at the thought that came after. "It's possible I'm just a real funky Sodalite and this is a standard power for me anyway, instead of a mildly defective Lapis Lazuli with some wayward abilities. What would my kindergartener know anyway?"

"Speaking of, how did things go with Peridot?"

Gradie was about to answer, but quickly motioned for a bit of silence at hearing something nearby. When there was no further sound, at least not the twisted cries of a corrupt Gem, she stood back up and began moving a little more in that direction anyway.

"Surprisingly well. She accepted the apology, said she didn't want it to put her off giving fusion a proper go someday, and that we should actually sit down and discuss things properly once this is over."

"Huh."

"Yeah, I'm really surprised, not to mention..."

This time, when her voice trailed off, it was because she had refocused her attention on their surroundings. Her earlier suspicions about the distant sound were back in force.

"Amethyst, wouldn't happen to know if corrupt Gems are smart enough to stalk their prey, and make for an ambush, would you?"

Amethyst didn't think twice about summoning her whip. "This would probably be the first time. The one Steven and Peridot tried to catch was just running away after all."

"Great, something new every day."

On cue, two corrupt Gems leapt into attack positions on both ends of the vague path through the jungle they had been following. Tall and lanky, with an odd dark grey grain look over their bodies, both were twitching their heads and limbs at high speed seemingly uncontrollably. Weird muttering was coming from both as well, and yet neither had any kind of facial features.

"Okay, now I'm worried! This isn't like any of the corrupted I've heard about!"

"No kidding!"

* * *

"So, how am I doing so far?"

The question caught Jamie by surprise from just how invested he had become in the conversation. Lapis was surprisingly not just well spoken, but also had a much greater awareness of current trends and topics of interest than he had expected from the Gems aside from Steven. And with Steven himself there to keep things upbeat, and Kiki's own contributions on the rarer times she spoke up, the whole conversation had been engaging indeed.

"You're doing great, really."

Lapis grinned at the praise. It was simple enough, but she was grateful for it all the same. "I'll admit, I was worried it'd end up being real awkward, but I'm glad it didn't."

And out came her latent worrying about anything and everything, rearing its head in the slight change of tone in her voice. This time, the concern about things going a little too smoothly, despite it being exactly what she wanted to happen.

That was something Steven picked up on almost immediately. All he knew was that there was doubt in her voice, about what specifically was something he had to glean out tactfully. Between bites of the next pizza slice of course.

Fortunately for him, Kiki was quick on the uptake, having sneaked away from the counter to pull up a seat with them, just for a little while anyway.

"Oh, Lapis, have you been practising any musical instruments lately? Jenny mentioned that you've been asking Sour Cream about music quite a bit lately."

She glanced at her briefly, finding it a bit of an odd segway, but taking to it all the same. "I've thought about giving it a go, but lately I've just been listening to whatever I can find. I feel like 'classical' is what I'm leaning towards liking most so far."

Steven took that opportunity to keep things going, putting his tact to the test. "Classical is good, I guess that's why it's got 'class' in the name to begin with. Jamie just mentioned something about musicals…"

Jamie was midway through his next pizza slice, making an exaggerated nod as he hurried the chewing a little more. "It's a very early concept really, need to find the kind that only needs a few actors that can also sing after all. It'd probably end up relying on out-of-town talent anyway, or I and whomever else that has the skills travelling to help out with a larger production nearby."

It was a notion that really made Lapis think deeper. What better way to really begin broadening horizons than by exploring new ways to express herself to others. And yet, the nagging concern remained.

The brief sound of Kofi talking with someone, presumably on his own phone, brought Kiki's attention away from the others momentarily, prompting her to begin getting back up for a hasty return.

"Sounds like a lot of fun Jamie." Her dash back to the counter was quick and quiet, sparing any confrontation, but also making it harder to keep with the conversation. "Building up that community spirit is something we all could use I reckon. Always nice to see more people getting into it."

"Yeah, it's so much nicer working with people who want to be there because they enjoy it." Jamie shot a brief glance at Lapis, who nodded back in return. "I'm glad I came back. All in all, it's the people that I like most in regards to Beach City as a whole."

Steven's phone buzzed at that moment, prompting him to let the others know with a simple gesture while reaching for it. Fortunately it was just a text message, though his relief at being spared the need to get some space was cut short by the message itself.

' _Steven, Garnet has concerns about a mission she sent Amethyst and Gradie on. Could you help me provide them with some backup please? -Pearl._ '

"Looks like I'm needed by the Gems, didn't know that there was a mission going on. Sorry to bail like this."

"It's okay Steven. I learned a lot from this already, and I think I know how I want to proceed from here." This time, when she looked at Jamie, it was with more confidence behind her decisions. Her own internal concerns she had thought over more, and reached her own conclusion about at long last. "Mind if we talk more outside? I don't want to keep you here too much longer."

All three of them eventually made their way out after that, each taking the time to thank Kiki on their way out, and then Lapis and Jamie thanking Steven for arranging things before he headed back to the Temple.

With just the crisp afternoon air, and the high tide coming in on the beach, the moment of truth arrived at last. The moment for Lapis to make her decision on just where to take her next stage of integrating with society, and more importantly, that of her personal life.

"Jamie, can I be honest without making this awkward, or hurting your feelings in any way? Because that's not at all how I want things to continue from."

The first part came as something of a giveaway to him as to what to expect. The second left him with quite a questioning look, not at all the follow up he had anticipated.

"Well, I did go into this expecting it to not go far at all. What I didn't expect was that I'd get to talk with a Gem and feel genuinely equal in the conversation. No offence to the others of course, I can't imagine it's an easy thing to balance out." He shrugged in a relaxed manner. "So yeah, you don't have to worry about my feelings, or leaving things on an awkward note."

It was a minor reassurance that helped things along in Lapis' mind far more greatly than she had expected herself. "It's a weird thing, but I feel like we wouldn't make a good couple, because we'd be far better as close friends."

Jamie simply blinked for a few seconds in complete silence.

"I have a lot of little issues to work out, mostly various kinds of paranoia. And I want to explore new ways of working through them properly, but if the person I'm that close with has a lot to deal with and also has to help me work through my issues at the same time, that would only make things worse for everyone, I think. Does that make any sense?"

"Eeeh… kinda?"

The general intent he could make sense of with a bit of thought, despite how weirdly it was all worded. But it was rather more uplifting than the last time he had been declined in the romantic sense.

Ultimately, that was good enough for him to go on from. "You really are an intriguing person, Lapis, in the end I'm glad this isn't, well, the end. And besides, I can already think of how much better certain plays can be with some aquakinesis to work with."

"I suppose I can do some of that. I guess I was thinking more about letting out all my deepest emotions in melodrama personally." That smile widened as she gracefully moved into a very dramatic pose, even flicking her hair about to really dial up the driven look while she slipped into a deeper, gravelly voice. "The water witch has many a sad tale in her life to regale to all who will listen, should they dare."

It was exactly the sort of thing that made Jamie laugh in the knowledge that she was definitely right for the theater in how readily she took to compelling exaggeration. "There'll be plenty of roles like that, don't worry. I'll let Steven know when the next meeting is so he can bring you along. Since we don't have an actual building yet. Or a proper schedule."

"There's a community drive idea right there. Anyway, maybe I'll see you around in the meantime."

"Yeah, sure. I'll just keep an eye out for a blue woman in the sky whenever I'm on the mail route. Take care."

It left quite the smile on Lapis' face while she watched him depart, about ready to do so herself since Steven was already back on the beach by that point.

And yet, she didn't quite feel ready to fly back over to the barn.

It was quite the surprise for Kiki when Lapis returned to the shop, this time making her way right over to the counter, with an odd smile on her face.

"Oh hey, you feeling like trying pizza after all?

"No, not yet anyway. I just had a thought, and after agreeing on how to proceed with Jamie, I think I want to give dating a more real attempt now. With someone else I mean."

"Huh, so who did you…" Kiki was quick to notice the tinge on Lapis' cheeks, which caused her own to blush up as she came to that realization. "Me? Really?"

"I mean, if I'm not your type I understand fine, I'm just asking to be sure."

Kiki chewed her lip in thought. "I guess I'm a little nervous. Things have been kinda weird since I went to the prom with Stevonnie, and apart from that no-one else has really asked me out like this."

Lapis took it all in stride, still ready to let things be when the time came. "I'll let you think about it. I don't wanna rush anyone into this after all."

"No, wait." A glance over her shoulder to the kitchen, and a soft clearing of her throat later, Kiki was reaching out across the counter to take both of Lapis' hands in her own, finding a smile amidst all her own little worries and nervousness. "I think I've learned enough about you already to have an idea of what to expect. The fact that you're so honest about your own flaws, and that you're really trying to overcome them is inspiring. I want to help, and be part of that."

That time, Lapis kept from chuckling solely to avoid the risk of ruining the moment with another snort. It was still all so cheesy, something she could picture Steven stating was fitting in a pizza shop of all places, and thus made avoiding the urge to laugh that much harder for herself. But more importantly, it was also very sweet in intent.

"I've learnt a lot about caring for others since I opened up to the Crystal Gems. I want you to know that right from the start, I'll be caring about you as well. I want to develop an equal relationship, rather than be the one getting all the support. So uh, don't be afraid to tell me when I'm out of line, or not doing enough, alright?"

"Okay. I'll remember." Kiki had to breathe in to keep her composure by then, something she hadn't quite expected from something that should have otherwise been of minor significance at most, were it not for how heartfelt it all sounded to her.

"Remember what, exactly?"

The pair quickly released hands when Kofi strode up to the counter, staring between them both with a very stern expression.

"Dad, I-"

"Mr Pizza, uh…" There were only a couple of vague memories that seemed relevant at that moment, which she quickly boiled down to the best way to broach the subject to him. "Do I have permission to date your daughter, please?"

Kofi's left eye widened momentarily as his stern look morphed into a stern thinking look, complete with chinhold and hum.

"After what has happened to this place thanks to the Crystal Gems in the past…" His gaze moved between them again, this time focusing more on Kiki's hopeful mixed with fearful face.

When he finally came to a decision, he looked back to Lapis. "It seems I have no choice but to say…"

Just as the tension peaked out, he extended his hand out to her, a wry smile finally cutting through the tough fatherly look.

"Welcome to the Pizza family, Lapis Lazuli."

The inevitable finally happened as Lapis shook his hand while laughing all the tension away. "Thank you, Mr Pizza."

Only for it to briefly return when he leaned over the counter and gave her the evil eye with a scary amount of intensity.

"If I ever find out you or your friends have caused her distress in any way-!"

"Dad please, don't scare her off like that! I'll be fine, promise."

Once Kofi had leaned back over the counter, and returned to the kitchen after no shortage of light shoving from Kiki, she finally went back to holding her hands. "I'm not gonna be kidnapped by some tiny blue Gem with wings because we're now dating, right?"

"Aquamarine isn't coming back, and I won't let Shungite get remotely close to you. Or any other Homeworld Gem for that matter."

"I believe you."The mood began to settle as the fluster of it all faded away, bringing back the more practical concerns at hand. "Don't suppose you have a phone? Or just some way for me to contact you? The barn is a little far off the delivery route by foot, so anything to keep in contact would be nice. I also don't mind arranging dates if you're not sure what ones to go with."

"Maybe for the first couple. I already have something in mind for a special one. Anyway, I'll ask Greg about getting a phone myself, hopefully waterproof. Otherwise, just let Steven know and I'll come. Speaking of which…"

"Yeah, hope he's okay. Well, better not let me keep thank you over and over, Lapis. Go be a Crystal Gem, you know where to find me after."

A nod was all Lapis felt was needed before she made her departure. Anything more would prolong things, and more than likely make her forget that they were only just starting out.

It was still an exhilarating feeling to have truly crossed that next hurdle in socializing, and have the bright future waiting just ahead for her.

* * *

The nightmarish reality of their opponents was quickly made apparent.

Every single swing was evaded with agility beyond what Gradie expected even from most Gems, let alone supposedly corrupt ones. No matter how much dexterity of her own she employed in order to make fatal blows, her target was able to swerve or dodge them with a loud jabbering of nonsense and retaliatory swing of those scythe-arms each time.

The situation was even worse for Amethyst, her whip strikes only ever finding empty air as she lashed out wildly with two at once, and still to no avail as her own target evaded otherwise entrapping strikes.

"How do we even fight them!?"

"They're reactionary! Bait them somehow!"

"Very helpful Gradie!"

Gradie herself was caught in a sudden double-strike that left her bracing her sword in a hard block against those shapeshifted blades bearing down on her. Far too co-ordinated.

"Can you see the gemstones?"

"I'm a little busy you know!"

She broke the block by deflecting the blades off to the side, weaving under the follow-up to put some space between herself and her opponent, who was fast to recover and looked ready to charge. This time at least, she was ready for her.

"Come on, do your worst."

Another yell of gibberish came before the corrupt Gem zigzagged right for her, arms swinging wildly to cut her form to pieces as it closed in.

She kept her sword high, looking fiercely determined, right until the last moment where she cocked a grin.

Before those blades made contact, her form dissolved into water, splashing over the ground in a wide puddle, sword included.

The corrupt Gem stumbled right over that puddle with a few splashes, twitching around in utter confusion at her disappearance.

Amethyst only groaned while stepping up her flailing defence even further.

"Getting some real abandonment issues here!"

Just as the corrupt Gem looked ready to attack Amethyst as well, Gradie's sword shot right up through its torso from the puddle. Her disembodied arm was sticking directly out of the ground until she felt the familiar poof of decaying hard light, allowing the rest of her to form back out from the puddle to come to Amethyst's aid.

By then, the second corrupt Gem had taken notice of her counterpart's demise, turning to block Gradie's attack. That left her exposed just long enough for Amethyst to lash both whips around the neck, yanking it back for Gradie to deliver a second finishing blow with her sword, a shower of dust coating the blade soon after.

"You okay?"

Amethyst grunted in annoyance at first, but soon nodded anyway while dematerializing her whips. "Yeah, thanks to you. Guess you really did just need to not be distracted after all."

"That trick wouldn't have worked twice. And you did remind me to make use of my solubility after all."

"Right, we both did good. Let's leave it at that and get these two back home."

Amethyst bent down to pick up the gemstone of the one between them, only to recoil in horror when she finally looked at it properly.

Gradie had a similar reaction, raising her sword back up a little out of defensive instinct. "What in flaming Homeworld is that!?"

* * *

"Garnet only told me she couldn't perceive whomever they were fighting. Apparently she can't find the outcome, so she decided they needed extra help just to be sure."

Both Steven and Pearl were making their way through a harsh cliff region of the jungle at that point. What might have once been the potential preparation of a Gamma Kindergarten had been abandoned as nothing more than mostly flat rock faces that only bore the occasional small tree. Clinging to what little surface it could to avoid falling, despite its own growth.

"And you both think Shungite is involved, right?"

"We don't think she's the combatant, no. More likely, the Star Sapphire that Apatite mentioned is extending some of her vision-blocking power to aid Shungite's plans further. We need to work out what exactly it is she's doing."

"I can answer that right now."

Pearl was reaching for her gemstone before she even turned around to face Shungite, who for whatever reason had once again shrunk down considerably in size, though still had at least a head's height over Garnet.

Steven didn't summon his shield until after he had turned, though he remained just as determined.

"We've left you alone Shungite! Why are you going after our friends?"

Shungite rolled her eyes, taking a small step forward. Her hands were suspiciously kept behind her back.

"They've done their job in assisting with some combat testing. The real experiment begins now."

She whipped both hands out at the pair, Steven ready to defend with his shield, only to watch in dismay as Pearl thrust herself between him and Shungite to intercept whatever attack she had in store.

"Pearl no!"

* * *

Just a couple of minutes later, Gradie and Amethyst came running, having heard Steven's exclamation after bubbling the two corrupt gemstones, still in hand as neither wanted to risk simply warping them to the Temple unsupervised.

As soon as they arrived, both looked on in further horror at what had occurred.

"Oh no. Not again..."

The black closed in around the star on Gradie's dress, then popped altogether.


	12. Together We Are Stuck

Garnet was standing in front of the warp pad silently, debating whether or not she had to go to the aid of Amethyst and Gradie as well given how long it had been since Steven and Pearl departed. She was still the only one ready to guard the Temple itself if Shungite tried to sneak in, but then she also didn't like waiting behind and not truly knowing what was going on elsewhere in the world.

The blare of the warp pad coming to life put that quandary to rest. Whomever it was coming in, she had to remain there.

When they drew close to arrival, she decided to pre-empt on the side of optimism.

"Amethyst, Gradie, what happened-"

As soon as they materialized, Garnet was nearly hurled across the room by the frantic flailing of a misshapen fusion, two voices babbling in a panic.

That of Pearl, and that of Steven.

Both their gemstones had nasty black devices clamped over each.

"Garnet! Help! Please!"

It was a version of Rainbow Quartz that should never have come into existence. The culprit was all too obvious.

"Shungite! What is she up to now?"

"Garnet don't touch those things!"

Gradie had to step around Rainbow Quartz by then, carrying both the corrupt Gems in her own pair of bubbles. "We need Peridot to take a look at these two when things have calmed-"

Rainbow Quartz had grabbed her rather fiercely by then, prompting Garnet and Amethyst into action to pry them off. "Calm!? Calm! How can we be calm like this Gradie!"

This time, Gradie chose not to just dissolve out of the grasp, and thus risk upsetting Steven and Pearl inside even more. After all, she was the closest to truly understanding what they were going through, but even then it was still an entirely new level of twisted and abhorrent.

When they finally did stop, it was thanks to Pearl finally breaking down in tears, while Steven was so emotionally overwhelmed by then that he did as well, leading to Rainbow Quartz relenting the assault and instead seeking refuge on the couch at last.

Garnet was caught in a very hard struggle to contain her fury and disgust. There was staging things to lead to the formation of Amazonite, and then there was the abomination that went beyond even the shard fusion experiments, since both Gems were very much conscious and aware of their state of suffering.

For the first time in a long while, Gradie was left feeling like she was the one who had to take charge in the midst of the crisis. "Garnet, Shungite is getting even more dangerous. These two corrupt Gems were organized, they were co-ordinated, and I'd say they were deliberately redesigned to keep us occupied."

"Redesigned…"

Gradie frowned at the lack of a meaningful response. They needed action, but it didn't appear as if that would be what they'd get anytime soon. "Fine, you worry about Pearl and Steven first, I'll see what Peridot can find out from these Gems." She strode back up onto the warp pad with a hard glare on her face, focusing it on Garnet when she turned back around. "If we let this slide, Shungite will only push further with her experiments. We can't let this go unanswered."

The sound of the warp pad blaring into activity effectively drowned out the quiet whimpering of Garnet as her whole body trembled. Her mind was fixated on that harrowing day years previous, nearly coming undone over the experiments in the Kindergarten.

Homeworld had learned from those experiments after all, but it was exactly the opposite of the lesson they needed. And, there was ultimately a significant difference between Gems that had fallen in battle, and two that didn't deserve to fall in such an atrocious manner.

"Steven! Pearl!"

She could hear the flailing panic cease briefly, as well as Amethyst's desperate attempts to bring calm to the malfusion herself. Just enough of a boost to her hard faced confidence to get a grip on herself once more.

When she turned and walked over to them, it was with a pained, but necessary face of stoic assuredness.

There was no trembling in her voice, not even revulsion, or anger at what Shungite had done to them with her sickening devices.

"You are not Rainbow Quartz. This is not fusion. Don't let Shungite win, don't give into her experiment. None of us will rest until we have put a stop to this. I promise you both that."

The amalgamation nodded as best as they could, both sets of eyes blinking at different intervals, while the half-merged mouth opened for a few moments, then closed to swallow before they both spoke in union.

"We trust you both." They slowly looked down to Amethyst, who was clearly bordering on tears of anguish, and began to feel the build up of crying from them both as well.

It took a deep sniffle for Amethyst to say anything. "It should've been us. Why did she have to ruin it for you two?"

"Amethyst, after what Gradie..." Garnet stopped herself before her anger took hold, going back to that stoic place. "She went after Steven because he can't be poofed free of her hold. Empty consolation is not going to help."

It was cold, even harsh for something Garnet would ever say, especially to the other Crystal Gems.

Too harsh for Amethyst in her moment of despair, sending her out the front door as the sobbing set in altogether.

* * *

"Wait, you didn't actually kiss her? Lazuli!"

Lapis rolled her eyes as a tinge formed on her cheeks, despite her efforts to remain as casual as possible, including leaning against the barn akin to how Buck often did whenever a wall was nearby.

"I didn't want to make her uncomfortable by being really forward. Besides…" She shot Peridot a sly grin. "You'd probably just get real jealous if I did."

Peridot looked ready to burst into another of her manic theory-rages. "Jealous!? What we have here is great! It would be completely illogical to damage this ideal establishment of co-existential relations by attempting the human practice of mashing saliva-coated lips together!"

"Then why are you shouting at me?"

The arrival of Pumpkin, complete with happy barking, punctuated the point of Peridot's overzealous behaviour to herself.

She relented with a deep sigh. "Because I'm happy for you, Lapis. I just felt like expressing that feeling by ranting about the inane and miniscule."

Further punctuating things was the activation of the warp pad, followed very shortly after by the sight of Gradie marching up the hill with a hard look to her. Both bubbled gems were hovering over her left hand.

"This something between you two, Peridot, or…"

Peridot shrugged right before the answer came from Gradie herself.

"Lapis, you need to keep the Gem I'm about to free from taking shape. We do not want her getting loose. I'll explain more while you get your water ready."

The other two exchanged uncertain looks, but Lapis did follow through with her request shortly after. A gesture at the top of the silo brought the water stored within gushing out in a controlled jet into a big blob that cast the area they were standing in with a blue, glimmering shadow.

"Shungite created devices that latch onto corrupt Gems and change them into uniform attack creatures. Amethyst and I barely took them down this first time alone. We need to find out how to get it off without damaging the Gem it's attached to, that being your job Peridot. Clear?"

The tone behind Gradie's voice made Peridot even more concerned as she glanced over the two disfigured gemstones. A tone of urgency.

"Shouldn't we be doing this back at the Temple, with Garnet's help?"

Gradie rolled her eyes once again. "Garnet's not going to be helping us anytime soon. These aren't the only devices Shungite decided to test."

* * *

"Please, try and explain what happened from the moment you found her."

The amalgamation twisted their eyes around frantically, looking anywhere but Garnet, having given up on shaking free of those firm gauntlets clasped over their shoulders.

Eventually, the resistance to thinking back to that experience, just before the two had become one, had to give out from them both. Though it did notably come mostly from Pearl's half of the fusion.

"She mentioned experiments. More experiments." The arm that split in two at the elbow, one leading to a white hand, the other human, twitched as it drew closer to the device clamped over Steven's gemstone, only to pull away before actually touching it. "She threw these devices at us. I, Steven tried to deflect them with the shield, but they crawled over it, leapt at the gemstones..."

Yet another uncomfortable reminder of those fusion experiments. Almost certainly not a coincidence. Shungite had been blatant about her visit to the Kindergarten lab after all.

That was something for Peridot to investigate regardless. Garnet had her own priorities.

"How much are you fused mentally? Your body clearly isn't a stable form."

A brief period of silence fell, perhaps clarity on the part of the two minds trapped within. Sadly, it did not last, frantic discomfort at their condition taking hold once again.

"I don't know! We don't know! Pearl is still in here, I'm still in here! These things keep messing with us!"

"How? How are they messing with you?"

The amalgamation broke down again in pained frustration, trying to claw at the two black devices holding them captive, but never able to actually make physical contact. Eventually, the frustration gave way to more tears. A horrible existence that neither of those within could do anything about, despite the problem quite literally being within arm's reach.

A similar struggle of frustration waged on within Garnet herself. The complete perversion of everything she held as perfect about fusion was there in a form she couldn't possibly take her attention away from, for the sake of those within it. Homeworld's ultimate message of hatred, that despite Shungite's apparent motives, she couldn't help but perceive as a personal attack against herself, with Steven and Pearl as the real victims.

* * *

One of the bubbles was suspended in a large sphere of water two metres thick, held up solely by Lapis while she remained focused, ready to condense that sphere at the given signal.

Gradie was standing right in front of it, hand resting on the tenuous surface. Her part in the process required a lot of careful precision in order to avoid being crushed by the forces that would have to be put into effect as soon as she completed her task.

Peridot was left feeling helpless and nervous, little more than something for Pumpkin to hide behind as they both watched from a distance.

It took several breaths for the calm to remain in Gradie long enough for her to feel prepared. "Ready."

After a nod from Lapis in acknowledgement, she pushed forward into the sphere of water, her body and gemstone dissolving into it without causing a break in the surface. A few seconds passed once she had disappeared altogether, ending with just her hand taking shape right around the bubbled gemstone.

With a tenuous gesture, she tapped the top, and caused it to break cleanly.

A muffled screech came from the centre of the water sphere immediately, accompanied by a chilling dark light that began spewing from the device attached to the gemstone.

As soon as Gradie came flying out of the sphere, Lapis strained her hands together, reducing its diameter by nearly half in just a second.

The Gem within continued to resist, very gradually growing its form outward, more and more.

"It's not working!"

Her hands were shaking violently as she brought them together more, reducing the size by a quarter, then a third. The water itself had taken on the consistency of gel under that imposed pressure, but still not enough to stop the formation within as the corrupt Gem fought back against its confined prison, limbs starting to emerge from its crushed shape.

When Gradie joined in, ice spikes began to grow inward from the surface, looking to spear through and prevent any chance of stable formation, also to no avail.

Even once the entire sphere had turned to dense ice, cracks were snaking all through it from the core. Both Lazuli were reaching the limits of control.

"Any suggestions Gradie!?"

"We distract her, Peridot gets Garnet to help?"

"I thought you said Garnet was attacked as well!"

Gradie's eyeroll into what would've been her clarification was cut short by the ice sphere breaking apart altogether, causing both to stumble back from the sudden loss of cohesion throwing their concentration off entirely.

By the time they were both back upright, the corrupt Gem had once again taken the form that Shungite had shaped it into.

All Gradie could do then was swallow, very slowly reaching for her neck. "Don't underestimate it. These things can-"

A long piece of metal impaled the corrupt Gem at that moment, followed by another, and another. Each brought on a shriek from the Gem, and while it had been momentarily stunned by each, it was still holding its form.

"Oh great. Either non-Gem weapons don't work on them, or Shungite's-"

Once again Gradie was cut off mid-sentence, though that time it was by Peridot having yanked the truck out of the barn and brought it right down on the Gem with a terrific crash. And again. And again.

She was ready to go for a fourth smashdown, only to notice that the corrupt Gem had finally been poofed, the gemstone itself and the device holding it captive still intact amongst the three lengths of metal.

Gradie brought her hand to her hip. "I assume I'm not going to be interrupted a third time?"

"Hey, what's with the sass? You two should be congratulating me for taking the initiative!"

One of the wheels fell off the truck at that moment for an unbelievably convenient moment of irony.

Which in turn brought the mood of sass to Lapis as well. "Guess we're gonna need something else to put up there now."

Far from gleeful at having finally dispatched the corrupt Gem, again, Gradie instead marched right over and very carefully picked it up by the gemstone itself, avoiding any contact with the device. The last thing she wanted was for it to spring off and go crawling up her sleeve.

"There's no way to tell exactly how long we've got before she tries to reform again given the nature of bubbling. Do what you can Peridot."

* * *

Normally, when Sadie caught sight of Amethyst walking up to the doorway, she took it as a sign to expect a lot of freeloading that would require a forced smile in the moment, and a mental note to clear the problem of a lost sale with Greg later on.

That time, the clear sulk in her shoulders was so clear that she actually left the counter before the doors even opened. Amethyst herself not making eye contact even then reinforced that growing concern.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

"I need a bowl of ice water." After slumping to the nearest table, and clunking her head on it with the mess of hair covering her face, she sighed out deeply. "Please."

While not quite the strangest thing asked for in her time working there, Sadie still raised an eyebrow at the request, but still went to get just that. "Best I can do is put a couple dozen of those ice tube things in a lukewarm bowl."

A mumble of indifference came from the lavender pile of hair spread across the table.

"Alright then." That took all of two minutes to prepare, the bowl barely half filled when she brought it back out and set it on the table, already having guessed what it was about to be used for.

A precaution that turned out to be very sound indeed, as Amethyst sloshed her face right into the bowl and began mumbling more into the icy water without pause.

Leaving Sadie feeling even more awkward about the whole matter. "I didn't think the other Gems got into heated arguments. Can't think why else you'd want to cool off like this."

No deviation from the bubbled mutterings.

"You sure you don't wanna talk about it? I like to think I'm a decent listener at the very least."

Soon after, Amethyst sloshed her head up from the bowl, looking blank in expression. She hadn't been driven to tears, but she certainly wasn't shrugging the matter off either.

"I can't do anything. It's Jasper all over again."

Sadie blinked. What little she knew about Jasper came from Steven, and that already left her with a bad feeling.

"Jasper's the tall orange one, right? And I guess you're talking about Shungite."

The lack of emotion from Amethyst finally broke in a deep sigh. Whatever, whomever she had a problem with at a given moment, the source was ultimately the same.

"All I could do to save Gradie from her, was hand over another Gem. Couldn't fight, couldn't take her out. And for all I know, that was the same Gem I didn't have a chance at taking out without Gradie's help not even an hour ago. I thought I got over this already, but…"

"One big bump and it's the same mess all over again, huh?"

Amethyst broke from her aimless gaze to look at Sadie. She had described the feeling churning in her chest dead on, and with that came a sense of relief.

"Lars?"

"Lars." The reminder made Sadie smile a little. Partially for how strange things had ended up becoming between them, mostly because of the odd feeling of excitement that he was coming home from another galaxy of all places. "Gotta admit, that last one was the biggest bump yet, but that's why I'm making time to prepare. Kinda wish I had something a little more, uh, relevant to say though."

"Eh, if the biggest problem I had with Shungite was that she's the sort of girlfriend that has commitment issues…" The smile began to spread to Amethyst as well. "Like I'd end up with a girlfriend, out of all of us. I bet even Peridot would find someone first."

That brought on a slight tinge to Sadie's cheeks. "Yeah, funny you mention that…"

Which Amethyst was on with such speed that she nearly knocked the bowl of water over without even thinking. "Really? Who'd she get?"

"Kiki stopped by and mentioned it. And well, actually…" Noting the precarious situation with the bowl, Sadie very tactfully pushed it well out of reach of any sudden hand gestures. "It was Lapis who asked her out."

"What!?"

* * *

In the void, there was substance.

In the substance, there was distance.

In the distance, a feminine figure was kneeling. Whispering. The silhouette of imperfect black against the true darkness of the void made her shape just barely visible, but it was the pristine white hands, with nails of glittering night that made her noticeable to the observer at all. The only part of her not covered by the deep dark veil of what he could not perceive.

Her hands were the only thing he had seen clearly in the brief time they had touched minds.

"Steven. Help me heal. Let me form. Steven."

The instinctive drive to assist others compelled Steven to follow that icy, toneless voice, to race out across the void to aid the figure ahead.

Carbon's voice. Calling to him from across the stars. The one Gem who could possibly help them stop Shungite, if she was willing.

"Oh my goodness, Steven!"

As if a gust of wind had turned her to dust, Carbon was gone from the void, leaving Steven to awkwardly turn around, right into Pearl's fearful embrace.

"Pearl…"

"It's okay Steven! We'll find a way out of this! Somehow!"

The fact that the void around them began to take the shape of an enclosing lattice at that exact moment seemed all too deliberate. Any illusion of their horrible predicament had been shattered.

Pearl couldn't help the faint whimpering that began to take hold.

That only served to embolden Steven, though in that case it was very hard to overcome his own growing fears. "Why us? She could've forced Gradie into another fusion. She was waiting for us specifically."

The realm outside the lattice began to shift, taking on a more grey tone that made the structure itself far more visible. To the further discomfort of both, they could now make out eight large pillars, or more precisely legs.

Two of Shungite's devices, latched onto each other, keeping them contained in an inescapable mesh. Shungite had no need for subtlety in that case.

Defeat set in, bringing Pearl to her knees. "We don't have a clue how these things are holding us in the first place. That and I'm not inclined to believe Shungite would actually spare Gradie a third… fourth unwanted fusion."

"There has to be a reason." Steven was ready to sit down as well when a thought occurred, one that made him hesitate for a quite a while before even considering bringing it up with Pearl. Even then, he had to swallow a lot of apprehension down. "Why haven't we ever tried fusing before?"

So many answers went through Pearl's mind. All of them the quick and obvious, but most importantly dismissive ones. The sort that were no longer relevant. Things had moved well beyond hand waving such things away.

"Steven, it's more to do with what your mother and I shared. And it goes back a long way…"

* * *

"Running out of time here!"

The continued prodding from Gradie made Peridot grumble under her breath while she continued to feel around the device. Fear of it hacking into her limb enhancers left them out of the picture, and Earth based technology was useless so long as she couldn't find a way to get at whatever circuitry lay within.

In short, she had no idea how to go about even getting it off the Gem, let alone examining its function in detail.

"I can't do anything in this amount of time. If I had scanners, precision cutters, fine-tuned non-networked instruments as well as at least two days of careful preparation maybe…"

Gradie groaned in frustration, almost shaking in restrained anger. Directed at Shungite more than anything for continuing to be so far ahead of them at every turn. Of course, she did have the vast resources of Homeworld to call upon, but that thought didn't ease the problem by any degree.

The frustration was doubled down for Lapis, left caring for Pumpkin in her arms as there was nothing more she could do in the matter herself other than staying out of the way.

How ironic.

"Alright we've waited long enough!"

There was an exchange of tense glares between the other two, eventually ending with Peridot sighing and placing the ensnared Gem down in front of Gradie.

"If this goes badly…"

A gesture of Gradie's hand brought a small glob of water up to the Gem, lining it up so that the covered facet was just slightly off from vertical. Angled exactly to the swing of her blade. "If you don't figure out how these devices work, Shungite will make more of them and we won't know how to stop them, at all. One Gem isn't worth that."

She lifted her blade, glancing over at Lapis in the vague hope of finding some support from her before taking the final action. "Playing it safe won't always cut it."

Just before she made the swing, having focused down on that precise cut, the Gem itself began to glow again.

Three near-simultaneous clicks later saw the delimbed device sprawling off across the grass, the stubbed claws flailing about angrily when it couldn't self-right itself. The tips fell away from the Gem instantly, having left no visible mark on any of the surfaces.

"Guess Rose's training hasn't worn off. Never touch blade to gemstone, her words." After bending down to bubble the Gem, which she kept hovering above her hand after, she approached the twitching device. A single poke with the end of her sword made it screech a garbled noise.

Peridot initially recoiled at that, but opted to investigate as well, albeit by lifting a metal bar over to prod with as well. "Definitely not like my robonoids."

"Clearly designed to scare us off the idea of removing them forcibly. Nothing would terrify Steven or Pearl more than having it screech and dig deeper. I swear that greyscale clod has no limits..." Gradie chewed her lip in discomfort. The inspiration behind the design had just become clear to her. "I've seen images of Earth creatures like this. Shungite must have found some along the way, on one of the people or animals she's encountered."

"Enough with the biology theorizing Gradie!"

"Hey I'm just saying she's reaching new lows with her methods." After another disgruntled glare, she finally sucked up the apprehension and dipped her hand in, encasing the Gem-tick in a separate bubble, which she carefully handed over to Peridot. "Put that somewhere safe for later. We're going to stop the problem at the source, and that means every one of us Gems on board to help."

She kept that glare up until Peridot went and did as asked, leaving her to look back at Lapis and her concerned stare.

"Gradie, I don't think-"

"Lapis, we can't outsmart Shungite, plain and simple. If we leave her alone any longer, this will get very bad, very quickly. She needs to go down. Today."

* * *

Gazing up at the painting was all she could do.

Now more than ever, Garnet wanted that insight, that wisdom and guidance. The feeling that Rose had things under control, and would find a way to handle the problem soon enough.

"I don't know what to do, Rose. "

As always, the portrait was silent.

"Rose, I'm so sorry Rose. Why Pearl? I did everything…"

Another long sigh from Garnet. The panic had subsided, leaving the two muttering things to each other through their shared whispers.

For once, she was genuinely relieved by the sound of the warp pad. Regardless of whomever it was, there would be a reprieve from agonizing over the complete inability to help two of her closest.

"Garnet.'

When Garnet turned, and met Gradie's gaze, just for a flicker of a moment, she saw the look of someone who was apathetic to everything. There was the task at hand, and nothing else was of importance.

Just a flicker.

Gradie swallowed down what she was about to say, a habit she had picked up from sitting through far too much of Peridot's deep analysis of human behaviour. As much as she wanted to see the two Gems in her possession placed to rest, she couldn't withhold her feelings on the other two in distress any longer.

"Are they okay? I…"

"Gradie, you don't have to-"

"Yes I do, Garnet!" As soon as those embittered words left Gradie's mouth, she filled with regret. There was an unpleasant edge to them, the leading result of all the turbulent feelings boiling to the surface.

After stepping off the pad, she left the two bubbles aside, approaching Garnet with folded arms, and finally letting out a long exhale. Her eyes were starting to glister as well, the onset of tears.

"This isn't just Pearl to me, or even Rose in a sense. Steven brought me out of a horrible part of my past, and made me feel welcome again and again before that. However I feel about fusion, those two treasure it above all else, even next to the two of you in there. How could I possibly not be enraged that Shungite is ruining that for them?"

It almost mirrored Amethyst's words, which came right back to hit Garnet with a second blast of regret at her own handling of things. And with it came one simple question. Some semblance of gauging which of the two had the right perspective in the end.

"Would you rather this happened to yourself and Amethyst then?"

One long, shuddering draw of breath later, Gradie shook her head. "Lapis told me a lot about what being Malachite was like. And somehow, I don't think repeating the forced formula of a Lazuli and a Quartz would turn out anything other than something far worse when I'm involved."

She cast a lingering glance at the amalgamation. A truly awful kind of admission had to be made to ensure her point was clear.

"I hate what Shungite did to them. And yet, this is still the better outcome. Somehow. How screwed up is that?"

In a coincidence that seemed too optimal to be true, the warp pad activated again for the arrival of Lapis and Peridot, just as Amethyst opened the door in her return.

All of the active Crystal Gems were gathered together once again.

After another long look to each of them, notably apologetic to Amethyst, and a particularly intense one to Gradie, Garnet found her emotional footing at last.

"Crystal Gems! Shungite has crossed a line today, and we will not let it stand!"

Rather than smirking as she might otherwise at having her words echoed at last, Gradie simply straightened up and nodded, remaining silent.

"Make no mistake! The fact that Steven and Pearl are the current victims does not change how we respond! All of you deserve the same conviction, the same retribution!"

The amalgamation of said two mumbled nervously, barely paying attention to the speech as they were lost in their own internal conversation.

"Shungite will go down, and we will see that she can't bring any Crystal Gem to harm ever again!"

Gradie softly cleared her throat. "We do need to put those two Gems somewhere safe first. Before we go charging off."

A nod was all Garnet needed after that, motioning for the others to ready themselves while she led Gradie over to the temple door.

In the meantime, both Lapis and Peridot had taken a long look at the amalgamation, coming to grips with exactly what had disturbed Gradie so much. There was no longer any doubts as to why she was so vehement on fighting.

Amethyst made her way over to the couch first, resting a reassuring hand on the twisted mix of off-white and skin coloured shoulders. It was still hard to not see the pair of them and break down, though she tried.

"Hang in there, please."

Pearl's eyes twitched about nervously. Steven's were slightly more fixed, though still darted in their own direction from time to time. The muttering continued on uninterrupted.

Sighing back that anguish, Amethyst continued on to the warp pad, finding a spot somewhere near the edge to make room for the other two, still inside the Burning Room.

Even with the mood low, she still found the will to latch onto that single spot of lighter news.

"So, Lapis…"

"Yes?"

"You and Kiki, huh?"

The bright blue tinge returned to Lapis' cheeks, along with a very slight tug at the corner of her mouth.

"I wanted to wait until things were a little more certain before telling everyone else, but…"

"Yeah. I hope it works out that way."

Shortly after, the other two returned from the temple, both stern in expression from their own brief discussion of the plan going forward.

"We start with the place Shungite attacked them, then the Kindergartens, and then the Galaxy Warp. When we find her, we stay coordinated. Don't get isolated, don't give her any opportunity or weakness to exploit."

Gradie nodded when it came to her turn. "We're not escalating this to shattering Shungite, but that's the only limit. Anything else goes. The only priority above poofing her is destroying the flute. Everyone got that?"

After the others sounded acknowledgement, Garnet glanced over at the amalgamation once more.

"This is for Steven and Pearl. Let's go."

Once the five had left, the only sound was the perpetual mumbling. Constant, without any sign of slowing down.

Save for a faint glow, and a soft hum, before it all continued on.

* * *

The simple melody carried out well into the depths of the jungle, beyond the rocky valley that by all accounts should not have allowed for such a harmonious reverberation under normal circumstances.

But then, the pristine flute nestled against Shungite's lips was anything but normal. There was a shift of energy every time her fingers slipped from hole to hole with cold grace, continuing the tune that came from within.

A piece of reverence for the Diamonds, praising them with every note. What better way to use the tool given her by them in a way they had not envisaged, but also had no reason to disapprove of.

"Shungite!"

Her eyes flicked open, the flute lowering down to her lap. That cold grace was gone in an instant, replaced by the mere lack of emotion in her manner.

Slowly she stood up and turned, facing down the five Crystal Gems at the other end of the valley.

Garnet taking point, Lapis and Peridot to her left, Gradie and Amethyst to her right.

"The experiment must continue, the result is vital to my work. You will not interfere."

"Gems!"

In succession, the whip, the sword, the gauntlets, the tide of water and three lengths of metal were drawn to the ready.

Shungite rolled her eyes, and in a surprising, if not extremely confident move, returned the flute to the space within her gemstone. Her hand remained poised there while she spoke.

"If you had broken my devices, the other two would be here as well. Desperation is a poor motivator when the desired result is exact."

"Attack!"

All five Crystal Gems began their charge forward, winding up for the impending barrage.

After a faint smirk, Shungite drew a long black rod from her gemstone, grasping it with both hands, and promptly breaking it in two.

"Your powdering."

Garnet led the charge with a fierce leap, one fist leading in for a crippling blow, the other drawn right back behind her head for a follow-up smackdown. Lapis and Gradie were both close behind, using their ability to fly for extra speed. Amethyst and Peridot were already fanning out to flanking positions, hoping to catch Shungite off guard.

All the actions were in motion as Star Sapphire had predicted to her. Her next moves were crucial, but also planned.

Her left baton collided with Garnet's fist, directing the blow just shy of her face as she brought the other one slashing right across the visor, completely throwing her off balance to the left.

In turn, she used her heavy lean to the left to draw both batons right back up at Gradie in a nasty uppercut, causing her to glide past on the momentum of her wings.

Lapis was the first to actually land her blow, bringing the torrent of water right across Shungite, who immediately allowed herself to succumb to the pressurized force applied. While still bent backwards, she hurled her ready baton up in a spin that forced Lapis to evade, and thus weaken her control of the water momentarily.

That in turn led her into a clean backflip, freeing herself from the torrent before it could solidify, legs parting either side of it until she found her next landing point, where Amethyst was lashing her whip out for a destabilizing ankle grab.

Planting her right foot, she allowed it to wrap around her left momentarily, then yanked it back with enough force to pull Amethyst over into a vicious kick under the chin, sending her sprawling back as well.

It had taken half a second longer than expected, causing the first length of metal to spear right through her torso through the side, instead of the front as she had expected when turning to take down Peridot.

Seeing Shungite fail to poof at that moment almost made Peridot smack her head in anguish. "Of course, that's how she made the corrupt Gems-"

Shungite had thrown the other baton at that moment, catching Peridot square in the stomach with enough force to send her flying into the wall, and then punch right through her form into the rock itself. Her own poofing came quickly after.

"Peridot!"

It threw Lapis off altogether, causing her redirected torrent to collapse as she bolted for where Peridot's gemstone had landed.

Rather than trying to get her back on task, Garnet seized the opportunity to leap right back in with a jawbreaker, glancing across Shungite's chin as she tried to evade the blow. It wasn't enough to keep her from striking back in turn, sending the fusion sprawling back once more.

Her attempt to remove the metal was interfered with yet again, this time by a blow from Gradie's sword that cut right through her left shoulder, lodging in the arm itself on its way out.

To Gradie's horror, rather than disintegrating the arm altogether, it merely glitched around both ends of the wound until it had sealed right back up, by which point Shungite had turned around and kneed her right in the stomach.

"Wrong shoulder. Pathetic."

Shungite yanked the sword from where it had gouged in her arm, and without hesitation, spun it around to plunge right through Gradie's back through her chest.

Her scream was cut short by the poof, sending her gemstone clattering to the ground in the puddle left behind by Lapis.

A battle cry rang out right before Amethyst lashed her whip around Shungite's neck and gave a vicious tug of her own.

"I'll show you pathetic!"

She went in with another tug, hoping to keep her off balance until Garnet was ready to attack again. All that served to do was briefly delay Shungite from slamming the metal bar out through her back.

Another torrent of water came from Lapis' direction, swooping back into the fight to Amethyst's aid, only to catch the leading edge of Shungite's roundhouse kick that eventually swiped the whip out of play altogether.

In a single leap she closed the gap, bringing her other foot nearly level with her face, and slamming the back of her heel right down on Amethyst herself. Her poof scattered purple dust in a large circle around the point of impact.

"Three down."

Another grasp at her gemstone brought the batons back out, hurling one at Lapis where it struck her square in the head, seeing her fall to the ground, but not poof just yet.

She was ready to move in and finish her as well, when Garnet made yet another charge at her, this time with near fully unbridled rage.

"Stop this!"

"You started it, fusion."

The real duel began at that moment. Fluid movements freed her batons, only for them to smack right back against those hard gauntlets with shuddering clacks that would see any human agonized from the impact alone. Garnet had raw ferocity at the downing of her friends, Shungite had icy poise in her seemingly justified confidence.

Citrine was an even match in size, armaments, and determination. This was a losing battle against the literal pinnacle of Homeworld's Gem design. It still didn't deter Garnet from striking blow after blow after blow in the slightest.

What Shungite lacked in emotion, she made up for in ruthless efficiency.

"And now, I end it."

A devastating blow slipped past Garnet's gauntlets, smashing the visor clean off her face, and her attention way off.

In that moment of imminent defeat, Shungite summoned both batons back once more to raise them up high, just as Garnet lifted both hands up in a desperate last defence, palms dangerously exposed.

There was a bright flash of light as the two weapons met.

Seconds later, smouldering chunks of Garnet's shattered gauntlets sprayed across the rock.

Garnet herself stood there, shaking violently.

Shungite was deathly still, the ends of her batons hovering mere centimetres away from the top facets of Ruby and Sapphire.

And yet, she still lifted them away.

"No… I need you around yet."

She brought her batons back for a poofing blow instead, staring Garnet right in her three eyes.

Leaving her completely oblivious to the pummel shaped like a pink rose that collided with her face at breakneck speed. This time when she splayed across the rock, her form did not recover from the nasty incisions caused by the impact.

None of which she had been told to expect by Star Sapphire.

"Yeah, we beat you and your devices Shungite. Together."

In a rare moment of rage, Shungite screeched, then rolled back onto her feet and leapt away before Rainbow Quartz could follow-up on their crippling attack.

After a soft sigh, they lifted the towering lance back upright and set the base on the ground, gazing over the devastating sight of three fallen Crystal Gems.

Garnet herself had dropped to her knees, staring at the two gemstones that had come within a breath of shattering, and broke down in tears.

After all that had happened, Steven and Pearl within felt as if they had no tears left to shed.

"We wanted to help. We wanted to show Shungite that we could overcome the feelings keeping us apart, that she used to keep us forced together…"

In a soft pink light, Rainbow Quartz unfused at last. Steven had the device imprisoning him on the right palm, Pearl's on her left. Both inactive.

Steven looked to Pearl, and for a moment wanted to keep quiet for the sake of it all, but couldn't bring himself to do so. "Garnet, when you're ready, we need to talk about mom."

Pearl nodded after a sharp breath, equally as uncomfortable, but agreeing with his decision. "There's something I've kept secret from you all, since before the war began, until now..."

In the midst of it all, Lapis regained enough strength to lift her head, so very briefly relieved at the sight of Steven and Pearl, before the harsh reminder of their effective defeat came rushing back.

Shungite had been forced to retreat, but the Crystal Gems had been beaten.

No-one claimed victory that day.

Stars closed in around all eight gemstones, before fading into darkness entirely.

* * *

" _Commence report,_

 _It is with mixed feelings that I begin by saying the latest experiments have been inadequate in achieving their respective goals._

 _While Subjects CS 1 and CS 2 did remain cohesive, and showed no signs of deviating from issued orders, their performance against randomly selected renegades was subpar. Whether this is due to the limitations of programmed battle techniques as derived from testing back on Homeworld, or due to some unforeseen interference from other sources of this planet requires continued study. Ultimately, there is cause to continue with development, but not deployment at this time._

 _Subjects SM 1 and SM 2 were unable to achieve a stabilized form initially as hoped, but nevertheless were somehow able to overcome the polarizing forces of their respective devices. Without approval for experiments of this nature to be conducted with your own resources, my Diamond, I simply cannot perceive a case in which merging can be truly utilized as an effective weapon against the renegades themselves._

 _I must also appraise you of the fact that the stabilized fusion that emerged from the failure of SM 1 and SM 2 was capable of inflicting lasting damage, akin to that of the renegade leader's sword, with an entirely new weapon of their own apparently spontaneous design._

 _But then, you suspect, if not know the reason for this unexpected development, don't you?_

 _End report._ "


	13. Ocean Date

"Pathetic! That's what she called me!"

The clink of Gradie's icy blade against the forged metal sword that Pearl had chosen for that particular day of training rang out repeatedly around the sky arena. Training that Gradie herself had very nearly demanded out of her own frustration.

Even right up to that crucial day of all days.

"This may not be what you want to hear, but you absolutely cannot take anything Shungite says to heart. All she wants is a negative reaction."

The clash of blades continued for a bit longer before Gradie finally relented with something of a growling yell, nearly tossing her sword aside altogether. It was the imprinted sense of proper swordsman behaviour that kept it in her hand instead, albeit very nearly dragging along the ground anyway in a near equally irresponsible display.

For once, Pearl ignored all that. There were far more important issues at play than handling a blade that wasn't even technically capable of being permanently damaged.

"Let me guess, this is where I say 'we should talk', you say 'I don't want to talk' in an angry tone, and we both go back to the temple feeling worse instead of better."

Gradie, for once, just sighed in place of getting flustered and annoyed. "I'm sorry. I'm making a big fuss over something stupid I know, but I can't help how much it's bothering me." After a longer sigh, she returned her sword to her gemstone, and finally sat down on one of the fallen pillars for a bit more time to relax. "I'm just not good at giving comfort. You went through a lot, and I don't know how to be a good friend for you, and that makes everything feel that much worse."

It took a little while for Pearl to decide on sheathing her own sword, and simply sitting down next to Gradie instead of leaving her to it. "It was terrible, yes, but I can at least see the single positive in that it was Steven I was trapped with, someone I know and trust more than anything. You didn't even have that much. So you don't have to stress the problem on my behalf, not this time. It wasn't as bad as it could have been."

The exact sentiment that Gradie had assured herself of at the time of the incident. A reminder that brought with it some amount of self-comfort.

"You really are amazing, Pearl. After thousands of years, you're still thinking of others first." Gradie's hand went to her head, lightly brushing a flick of hair back behind her ear, just before tilting her head around to look at Pearl herself. "I really missed our little talks. The one I had with Garnet reminded me of them, a lot."

"On the eve of battle, near this very arena."

"I was hesitant about leading my first battalion in Rose's name. You convinced me I had the courage to do it."

"And we drove Homeworld out of the area for months as a result."

The moment of elation faded briefly. Both knew what had happened the night of that victory, and both had different reasons to feel awkward about bringing it up.

Gradie opted for somewhat side-stepping it as a result instead. "If I had been more trusting, and told you what went on with Star Lapis, would it have made a difference?"

Expectedly, Pearl was quick to respond. "Of course it would. I never would have been so insistent on sharing the experience of fusion with you if…" She trailed off in a bit of a regretful way. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound as if it's your fault for not telling me. I was just too excited to actually wait for a more thought out answer, and that's entirely on my naive self."

"It's okay, I'm getting over that." Gradie cast her another glance, then looked back out to the sky ahead of them. "What I meant is, would Pink Diamond have been able to do anything about it?"

The familiar nod came shortly after. Things between all the Crystal Gems since she had opened up about the truth to Steven, and he to the others with her. There was some comfort in knowing that her friend and confidant had already come to terms with it.

"I really don't know. She couldn't order the Star Gems as a whole off Earth when they still answered to White Diamond, especially not during the Rebellion. But, I'd like to believe she would have done her utmost to expose Star Lapis for her horrible behaviour if she knew there was evidence to back it up with."

Gradie cracked a grin at the thought. "Wow, that'd be a weird encounter alright. Captured by Homeworld soldiers. Pink Diamond coming by, personally, to ask me to testify against Star Lapis to the Diamond court, only to be conveniently 'rescued by Rose and yourself after the trial. And who'd be the wiser?"

"Not the other Diamonds, that's for sure."

It lifted the mood enough for Gradie to slip into a silent laugh of sorts, leaning back a little while those last inhibitions were cut loose. Just a few moments of untainted joy.

"Good thing I didn't go to Elysium with Steven and Connie. I'd have socked White right in her big stupid nose given the chance for creating such horrible Gems."

The elation lasted a bit longer before subsiding, leaving both in a better mood for it. After one more exchange of glances, they both opted to stand back up alongside each other.

"Better not keep the others waiting, huh? Big day and all."

"That it is, Gradie. That it is."

* * *

For once, there was little said between Steven and Connie on their way down the boardwalk towards the beach.

Moving past the whole incident of being forced into Rainbow Quartz had been hard for all of the Gems, and while Connie had no regrets about spending quality time with her parents, being away at the time had still left an impact on her.

It was an entirely unpleasant dilemma to look back on.

"How's Peridot?"

Not the topic starter Steven had expected, but he didn't even need to look to know that Connie was reaching for anything at all to break the silence.

"She still hasn't reformed yet. I guess she really wants it to be as good as possible."

"Well, she is meticulous like Pearl."

The silence began to set back in after that. Thankfully for them both however, they were almost at the beach where others had gathered anyway. Of the Gems, only Garnet and Amethyst were present so far.

"Guess Lapis isn't coming. Pearl and Gradie must've lost track of time, I don't think they'd just forget about this."

Connie's face grew a little concerned at that, but she nodded anyway. "How are they doing?"

Steven simply shrugged. Beyond the usual daily greetings and passing acknowledgements, he and Pearl hadn't talked at all, having said all they needed to during the incident itself it felt like. And it had only been a few days since Gradie reformed, in which she had retreated to the lighthouse whenever she wasn't training with Pearl.

Thus, there wasn't a whole lot to say then and there. "They'd probably talk with each other while swordfighting, that's something I guess. I don't think Gradie will want to train with Stevonnie anytime soon though."

"That's okay. I'd rather practise against a fencing style than a big broadsword style. In case we ever run into Apatite again."

By then they had reached the group at last. Amethyst and Sadie were chatting to each other. Garnet was standing off to the left in her stoic way. Mayor Dewey was silently reciting the speech he had prepared. Both Dante and Martha Barriga were quietly watching the sky.

When Dewey caught sight of Steven, he broke from the recital to approach the pair. "Universe, are we missing anyone here?"

Steven glanced over the crowd briefly, then shook his head.

"Good. The last thing this town needs is the reputation of not taking such a monumental occasion seriously! Now, to clarify, it's the 'Off Colours' that describes these other Gems?"

"Yeah, they're not Crystal Gems like myself and the others. But they're still very friendly, I promise."

"You've never given me reason to doubt your word Steven. First impressions with an alien race are vital after all, and I'm not one to turn down advice."

While he went back to his previous spot to continue reciting, Connie tightened her lips in a bit of a grimace. "No offence Steven, but I'm not sure how they'll react to a political speech."

"Don't worry, I helped Mayor Dewey write the whole thing. They'll love it."

It wasn't too much longer before a distant boom echoed down from far up in the atmosphere. Shortly after, a yellow dot became visible against the blue, gradually drawing closer, and taking the more defined shape that Steven and Connie recognized well.

"They're here!"

The crowd formed up behind the line that Steven had arranged that morning, leaving plenty of space for the landing itself.

It wasn't too long before the hum of the _Sun Incinerator_ became audible, approaching on a comfortable descent. There wasn't even so much of a gust of sand when it came within metres of the beach itself. One very good thing about Gem technology was the refined control of motion after all.

The landing strut furthest from them extended out first into the shallow water, finding a secure spot before the other two lowered as well, ensuring a perfectly level landing despite the uneven surface.

Compared to the two previous times that a Gem spacecraft had landed on Earth recently, not counting Shungite's pod, the tension was wonderfully that of anticipation, rather than dread.

Both Lars' parents and Mayor Dewey jumped in surprise as a sizeable area of the lower hull vanished into itself, allowing for a large ramp to spontaneously materialize down to the sand at exact length.

The shared anticipation hit its peak when the sound of footsteps came through. That was shortly followed by a glimpse of black boots, then the cape and pants.

And finally, at long last, Lars Baringa set foot on Earth once more.

Excitement was strong at that moment. Even the Gems were giddy in spite of the usual reserved attitude towards the townsfolk, and not just because of what an escape from Homeworld's forces meant.

Everyone else still knew to wait back a while longer despite the joy, allowing plenty of room for Dante and Martha to embrace their son at last.

Words were unnecessary at that moment, as the time for the boundless talking was for much later of course. All that mattered was living in that moment of reunion, and cherishing it.

Before long, the Off Colours themselves began to descend down the ramp as well.

The Rutile Twins led the way, awed by all those gathered before both waving to Steven and Connie.

Padparadscha was close behind, grinning at what she currently perceived as the view of Earth's oceans on descent towards Beach City.

Rhodonite was a little slower to depart, still somewhat shy about the notion of Earth itself as a concept for all that time.

She was encouraged on by Flourite, who was expectedly patient with her own departure from the vessel, finding space to stretch out behind the rest of the crew where the waves drifted in and out around her feet.

When they were all finally present, Mayor Dewey stepped forward and cleared his throat to assure the attention of all gathered.

"It is my humble duty as Mayor of Beach City to say a few words on this momentous occasion."

He placed his left hand on his chest, while extending his right out in a welcoming gesture to Lars.

"Lars Baringa, welcome home."

And then turned to all the Off Colours.

"And to you, Off Colours from Homeworld. Welcome, to Earth."

A nod and lowering of his hand indicated that his speech was over, bringing on a heartfelt applause from everyone, including both sets of Gems.

Connie leaned closer to Steven just a little in the midst of it all. "Short, but meaningful. Exactly your style Steven."

"I told him the Off Colours haven't learned enough about Earth to understand historical or cultural references, and he didn't want to make things awkward. Just takes knowing your audience."

The applause ran its course shortly after, save for Padparadscha who began clapping at that moment.

Before long, the two groups began to intermingle into two new groups, that being the Crystal Gems making their more personal welcome to the Off Colours, while Lars parted from the embrace of his parents to hug Sadie at last, while also looking to Steven and Connie.

"I wanna catch up with you guys tomorrow, there's some ideas I came up with. Today…" He looked back to his parents, and then to Sadie herself. "I'm just glad to be back."

Steven nodded without hesitation. "Take your time. We'll be busy showing the others around Earth anyway."

Meanwhile, Garnet had handled introducing Amethyst to the other Gems, all while discreetly looking into the near future to guess when Pearl and Gradie would finally show up.

"So, Ruby and Pearl huh? Pretty neat."

Rhodonite nodded in her own mildly shy way. "Yeah. Just a couple of low grades…" She immediately winced at her own reflexive self-depreciation, something that was eased by the Rutile Twins showing their concern. "I don't know how you're so confident, Garnet, it's amazing."

"I'm more than happy to give advice and guidance, when the time is right."

At around the same time Steven and Connie joined that group at last, the warp pad atop the highest of the Temple's hands activated at last. Pearl and Gradie had finally arrived, though still had some distance to walk before meeting with them all.

Steven especially was too preoccupied with embracing all the Off Colours in turn to have taken notice. Knowing they were safely on Earth was a hope several months in the making, and had at long last been fulfilled.

"How's Earth so far? It's so great you got here on a sunny day."

Flourite spoke up at last after a nod to the others. "Ittttt'sss veeerrrryyy bbrrriiiiggghtt. Sooo muuuchh niiicerrr thaaan Hooommeeewoooorllldd."

"Yeah, and when it does get cloudy, there's rain to enjoy instead. Never a dull moment here, you'll see."

Connie piped in enthusiastically. "I've taken the liberty of preparing a simple guide to life on Earth for you all. And I'm sure Peridot will love recounting her own experiences when she's ready to. She's just unfortunately preoccupied right now."

By then, Pearl and Gradie had almost arrived, finally drawing the attention of everyone else from the further exchange.

Pearl herself had quite the big smile at getting to see the new Gems for herself. Gradie's on the other hand was bordering on nervousness, her gaze fixed squarely on Flourite.

"That's… She's a…"

The smile remained on Pearl while she discreetly moved a little closer to Gradie. "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll understand why you're hesitant. From what Steven told me, all the Off Colours have apprehensions they're trying to move beyond because of Homeworld's awful behaviour. It's no different for you."

"Just stop me if I start blabbing. Last thing I want is to-"

They were within earshot of the others by then, forcing Gradie to chew down on her tongue to keep her worries contained.

Pearl lightly touched the back of her hand before stepping forward a little, making clear her acknowledgement. "Sorry we're late, it's very easy to get caught up in the spirit of sword fighting after all!"

Expectedly, she noticed the distinctive Pearl features of Rhodonite, then looked to all the others with a warm smile. "I'm Pearl, obviously, and this is Gradie. One of our resident Lapis Lazulis. Lapis herself will introduce herself at a later time, as I'm sure the others have explained."

Gradie gave a very small wave with her left hand, the right clenching onto her dress.

Both of the Rutile Twins looked at each other at that moment, the same question in mind. "Gradie?"

"Steven's idea. Since I'm a gradient, and uh…" Her clenching grew a little tighter when she couldn't help but notice more of Flourite's eyes on her, "I think everyone calling me Lapis Lazuli Facet 6T4 Cut R9 would get old. So, y'know, individuality and whatnot..."

While her voice trailed off into awkwardness, Padparadscha decided to chime in.

"Gradie, I have just experienced a most troubling vision! You will become increasingly uncomfortable with an impending conversation!"

That reminder of her unique ability was too much for Gradie to stand things any longer, driving her to turn away and walk off with her face in her hands. Fear of hearing the further prophecy that Flourite was the source of her comfort was taking fierce hold in her mind. Now more than ever she didn't want her inner feelings broadcast to everyone.

True to her word, Pearl came in to cover for her. "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll calm down, since she's already become uncomfortable..."

She went right to Gradie's side at that moment, both hands on her respective shoulders in the most comforting manner she could think of.

Steven just grimaced at the sight. So much for the happy mood. And while no-one could ever blame Padparashada for being the way she was, it was simply an unfortunate fact that not all of her unique insights would be useful or simply harmless.

"We've all been through a rough patch." He half turned to the Off Colours, sighing at the self-admission that there was no use holding back the truth of the situation. "Remember when Garnet and I came to visit, and we mentioned a Homeworld Gem named Shungite?"

* * *

On a small pile of blankets sat the motionless gemstone of Peridot.

Next to the pile of blankets sat the motionless form of Lapis staring at the TV playing Season Two of Camp Pining Hearts.

The actual dialogue was so ingrained to memory by then that she didn't even need the volume above the bare minimum to follow along, not that she was particularly engaged with watching it anyway.

It was merely something to keep her occupied, nothing more than a visual stream of colourful input. She was at a loss as to what else she could possibly do until Peridot reformed at last. Not being there upon her return was an unacceptable possibility.

"Lapis? You around?"

The sudden voice calling out was faint due to distance, coming from well down the dirt road. Despite her assertions, Lapis nevertheless hurried up to her feet and began to make her way out of the barn.

It wasn't long before she caught sight of Kiki jogging closer at last, bringing a soft smile to her face.

"I'm here."

The need to stop for breath only came after Kiki found herself embracing Lapis at last, grinning quite a bit herself at the comfortably cool form she wrapped her arms around. Which faded a little when she took a proper look at the gaping hole above the barn doors.

"Wow, you okay? Must've been a pretty big crash."

Lapis blinked in brief surprise, though did relax back once she caught onto what Kiki was concerned about. The concern itself being first touched her quite a bit.

"We used to have a truck up there. Then we needed it to take out a tough Gem, which ruined the truck, so I haven't put it back up." She eased from the hold enough to turn around and look over the barn alongside Kiki. "Kinda waiting for Peridot to come back so we can decide what to do."

When she noticed that confused look, she smiled again. "Sorry I haven't come by, Kiki. Just hasn't been a good week for any of us."

"I assume you mean the ones not getting trucks dropped on them?"

"Basically."

"Aw, that's no good!" Kiki hugged in close again, that time with her head leaning onto Lapis' shoulder with a very sympathetic look up at her.

Whatever concerns had been in Lapis' mind melted away at that moment. Nothing could withstand such a pure expression of care, even with her own troubled past.

"I think it just got a lot better." That smile grew a little more when she felt Kiki very lightly swaying about, still very much fixated to her side in an undeniably cute way. ""Wanna look around the place? Not a whole lot to see, but it's home."

Kiki slowly eased off Lapis, though did make a point of reaching for her hand instead. "That's okay. I got half an hour left on break anyway."

With fingers entwined, Lapis led the way. "Well to start with, the pool on the right is where Steven and Peridot drilled down to the Cluster. Gradie comes by sometimes for practising water kinesis. Apparently she doesn't like working with ocean water all that much."

"Gradie's the one that looks like you, but has a headband, right?"

Lapis nodded as they passed by the pool. "I think she still hangs out at the lighthouse when she's not doing anything. Meeting new people isn't really her thing I've noticed."

They were at the threshold of the barn by then. The TV was still faintly continuing on with the show. Peridot's gemstone was just as it had been left.

Experience, as well as the occasional conversation with Steven, allowed Kiki to deduce as much for herself when she caught sight of the green stone. "Huh, so that's what you meant. I figured she had gone off to some other planet."

The hand holding ceased at that moment, Lapis moving on alone so she could delicately lift the blankets supporting Peridot up off the ground. "Knowing her, she wants her Crystal Gem look to be something really special." Her smile had faded by that point, though after a brief sigh, she settled for a more bemused one. "Shungite is to blame. I know Peridot wouldn't have wanted to reform before we kicked that clod off Earth for good."

Kiki let the distance between them stand for that moment, not wanting to be too overbearing after all. The mention of Shungite did jog her memory however. "Oh, that grey Gem with the big black hat that Greg was showing around the boardwalk?"

Both of Lapis' eyebrows went up at that moment. "Knowing her, he was too scared to do anything other than what she told him to. However innocent she looks, she really is one of the worst-"

The sight of Peridot's gemstone beginning to glow at long last stifled her breath. Keeping calm, she quickly turned and set the blankets down right before it began to float into the air.

"Oh gosh, uh, smile!"

"Smile? Should I even be here for this?"

"Peridot's been waiting to meet you anyway."

In that time, the familiar shape of Peridot's form had emerged from the gemstone, the triangular hair and short stature unchanged. It wasn't until the attire began to take form that the real developments became apparent at last.

What was the near-fully enclosed visor had shifted down into something more akin to safety goggles, no longer covering her forehead and connecting right to the gemstone itself. At the neck, a bandana had taken form, tucked neatly into a short sleeve jacket, while an apparently matching pair of shorts followed after.

After a few more seconds, the bright green glow faded out, allowing all the actual colours, as well as the imitation sneakers now covering her feet, to become clear to both those watching. Both the jacket and shorts bore the dark green shade of her uniform, trimmed in the lighter shade, akin to the bandana itself which bore yellow stars all across it in a scattered patterning.

Kiki was expectedly speechless at what she had just witnessed.

Lapis hummed in concern. "I thought you didn't like Paulette."

Peridot, who had spent her first waking moments in over two weeks looking over her new form, immediately glared up at Lapis with the most indignant expression she had ever pulled.

"She has a loose bow tie, not a bandana! How can you possibly compare the two!?"

For a moment, Lapis went silent, having just realized how vacuous things had been without Peridot arguing about something. She glanced to Kiki, then looked back to Peridot while descending to her knees, and finally leaned over to embrace her at last.

"I'm so glad you're back."

The bout of frustration in Peridot's mind melted away immediately. Everything else aside, knowing that she had been missed was something she didn't take for granted in the slightest.

Not that she was about to let that pure moment stand for long in the presence of another. A cough, and relinquishing of the hug later, and she was back to staring up at Kiki quizzically. "Hm, based on your appearance, and your close company, I presume you are Lapis' girlfriend."

Kiki nodded, looping her arm around Lapis' once again. "Mhm, I just came by to see how she's doing. Nice to meet you Peridot."

"Likewise. Now, may I ask you a simple question?"

"Sure."

"Why hasn't Lapis kissed you yet!?"

* * *

"Ugh! Why do I always mess things up?"

Gradie was pacing around the kitchen area, if only to avoid any physical consolation from Pearl, who could only watch on in deep concern.

"You did nothing wrong, and no feelings were harmed. There's nothing to blame yourself for."

The pacing continued nonetheless, her face remaining behind her hands as she tried to keep from wringing her hair instead. "Oh yeah? And what if Padparadscha suddenly reads back to when I say something unpleasant behind her back on an impulse? I know it's going to happen! It always happens Pearl!"

Pearl's mental search for more supportive things to say was cut short by the arrival of Garnet at the door, in that case a relief as there was little coming to mind.

Despite that, Gradie was still first to acknowledge her arrival, having lifted her head back up from her palms at last. "I'm sorry Garnet! I've really been trying to get better, but it's just too much right now!"

Garnet shrugged it off, nonchalant as usual. "I know."

Pearl's touched two fingers to her forehead with a mildly disgruntled huff. "Gradie, you're overthinking this. Padparadscha doesn't have any more control over her past vision than you do over what you happen to say on a whim. They may be completely different happenings, but that's just who you both are. You don't mean to offend any more than she did back there."

"Except she's stating facts, while I'm just voicing nasty thoughts!" Gradie finally took that long breath, trying to find her calm centre at last. For what little good it did her mind anyway. "I don't want them to think I'm going to treat them like Homeworld did. Garnet, you know exactly what I mean."

That brought on another shrug from Garnet. "If you let something slip, apologize for it. Don't get upset, don't make excuses, and don't feel as if you've ruined everything. They're not looking for a reason to push you away."

After further thought, Pearl just nodded in agreement. "I actually still can't think of a better way to put it. If you're that certain something will happen eventually, better to prepare for it than stress over avoiding it, right?"

Gradie had folded her arms by then, still looking very upset with herself, but not to the point of frantic behaviour. The option of just avoiding the Off Colours for their sake was weighing on her mind, something that only felt as if it proved her worries to be justified. It would certainly classify as 'preparing' rather than stressing.

"I'll try. That's all I'm about these days anyway." She glanced downward to avoid looking into Garnet's visor. "I'm still really uncomfortable just thinking about Flourite. That probably isn't going to change anytime soon."

Garnet shrugged once more. "I'll handle it when they get back from the tour. There's no hurry."

She strode past to the Temple, making her way inside without a further remark. Whatever it was that kept her from joining the others on said tour was known only to herself it seemed.

In the wake, Pearl offered comfort to Gradie once again, who continued to stare at the floor in silence, not quite ready to move from that spot.

* * *

"And no, there are no intentions to ever revive PeridApp in any shape or form. Considering what happened last time, I am much happier leaving it in the digital grave."

"Aw, that's too bad. I thought it was real funny."

Lapis rolled her eyes in such a way that ensured Peridot saw it very clearly, and Kiki was oblivious to it. When all that got her was a scowl, she settled for imitating a throat clearing sound instead.

"Sorry to interrupt…" Drawing Kiki's attention to herself meant that she was now the only one to see the full brunt of Peridot's annoyance with her interruption. Something she could happily live with. "But you did say you were on a short break, right?"

"Oh!" A quick glance at her phone confirmed as much. "I'm gonna have to book it at this rate! Sorry Peridot!"

"Don't worry Kiki, I've got this." A dexterous guiding hand saw Lapis leading Kiki back out of the barn, after something of an apologetic shrug to Peridot.

Once outside, she brought her to a good open spot, then moved around behind her. "Okay, lift your hands up, and grab onto my arms when I grab yours."

Kiki hummed in a bit of cautious thought before obliging, still concerned about the passing time. "Okay, I don't quite get where this is-"

She heard what sounded like splashing water right before Lapis' hands clamped onto her arms from behind as described, prompting her to do the same. Not even a second later however, she felt her feet leave the ground in an upward swoop, carrying her well up into the air.

When that moment of shock passed, and she looked down to the grassy hills below, she broke out into gleeful laughter.

"We're flying! I thought Gems just jumped around, or did whatever that giant pufferfish did!"

A wide grin was on Lapis' face by then as she planned out the steady glide down towards Beach City, elated that Kiki was enjoying it just as much as she was. "Comes with control over water! Don't know why or how, I've never questioned it!"

By the time they were approaching the water tower to the right, the elation had settled a little more, leaving Kiki with a bit more time to ponder.

"Hope I didn't get between you two back there. It's real sweet of you to do this for me, but I wouldn't wanna hurt a friendship just to avoid being late."

Lapis blushed a little from that, keeping the descent to a gentle glide. "It's fine. Not like I won't be back there in a couple of minutes anyway."

"You sure? Just seemed like you were a little bothered by the kiss question…"

The involuntary tightening of Lapis' hands confirmed as much, though she made sure to not let her grip loosen after that.

"Honestly, I just don't really like the actual act of kissing. Last time saliva came into contact with my body wasn't all that great, even if it was to fix a crack in my gem. Peridot just has weird obsessions."

They were starting to pass over some of the homes by then, leaving little time before they would have to part ways. Kiki was quick to act on that.

"It's okay, holding hands and hugs are just as nice. You just let me know if you're ever uncomfortable, Lapis."

Lapis felt the blush return again. "Thanks Kiki."

They finally came to a stop above the backlot, Lapis very gracefully lowering down until Kiki was standing on solid ground again, landing right beside her shortly after.

Both felt a little odd letting go of each other at that point, leading to a full embrace between them once more.

"I haven't forgotten about that special date I promised, Kiki. It's taken a lot of practise, but I think I can make it work now. Just pick a night, and I'll get it all set up."

Kiki smiled again at the thought. "Maybe this weekend? Jenny's going to some big wrestling event, but since we don't need a car…"

"It'll be right here in Beach City anyway, don't worry."

The mutual hold eased at last, both women slowly moving apart, until only their fingers curled into the other's hand remained for that last gaze. Eventually that tender hold broke as well, as both went their separate ways in the end.

* * *

Evening had set in when Steven and Connie wandered up the path that eventually led to the car wash. Things hadn't been nearly as cheerful or exciting as any of them had hoped; even the tour itself had been marred by the constant concern that Shungite would show up and spread misery in her wake once more.

It did make the precaution of having them park the Sun Incinerator on the moon during the night a lot easier to bring up, but that also meant a much earlier departure for practise.

Far from the happy day of new Gems experiencing the freedom Earth offered for the first time that had been envisioned.

"Hey-ey little man, Connie."

Greg was of course unaware of all that, having been out of town for nearly the entire day. Even when the pair drew closer, their downed attitude more apparent, he remained upbeat.

That much at least was enough for Steven to attempt a smile. "Hey Dad. How'd things go?"

"Great actually." He motioned to the two beach chairs while walking over to the back of the van for a clipboard, which he returned with to show to them. " _It's A Wash_ is getting an official business expansion! In about six months time, there'll be a brand new workshop for automotive repair right next door."

Both of the others looked over the clipboard detailing the business license, with Greg's name proudly at the top as company manager.

"Huh. You're gonna fix cars as well as wash them?"

"Well, not really. It's one thing to do DIY maintenance on your own vehicle, but fixing them within a week for paying customers, that's way more tricky." Greg tapped at his chin. "I could try asking Pearl, but I think her becoming an employee would be a little too weird…"

The thought of Pearl in a mechanic's overalls made Steven chuckle a little. But then, the notion of any Gem actually settling into an 'ordinary' job was so far removed that it was funny in of itself.

"I still think she prefers building things. But six months is a long time, maybe she'll change her mind."

Connie nodded, though more for approval than agreement. "I'm sure it'll be an interesting endeavour regardless. There's little better than providing a needed service to the community."

After shrugging that all off in his own humble way, Greg slid the clipboard under his arm for safekeeping. "That's enough about me though. How'd things go with Lars and the Gems?"

The perpetual upbeat mood had left an impression on the pair at last, taking what would have been a more defeated admission and propping it up into a small bit of positivity.

"Lars went to be with his parents, so I'm pretty sure he had a great day too."

Connie nodded again. "It was kinda weird, but I think the Off Colours wanted to explore the Kindergarten most. I guess because it's the one place on Earth that's remotely familiar to them."

The inevitable silence still arrived in the end, though thankfully it did not last long for once, again thanks to Greg's nature.

"When they've been on the run for hundreds of years at least, I bet they're gonna have trouble slowing down and eventually stopping. Not like they'll want to camp out there indefinitely though, right?"

Steven grimaced a little. The very reason for talking them out of that was because of the heightened risk of Shungite visiting the area, making that last rhetoric a little too accurate.

It was one negative thought too many for him to keep all the mental weight contained anymore. "To be honest Dad, it didn't go how it should have. They shouldn't have to worry about Shungite coming after them, but they had to know."

He gravitated towards one of the beach chairs at long last, sitting down on it at a right angle to the proper way with a defeated sigh. "I really wish they could've all come back with me when I first met them. Before she showed up."

At that, his chin came to rest on his palm, a posture from which he barely moved, even after both Connie and Greg moved around to provide comfort. "I keep trying not to think about Shungite. But I can't forget about what she did to us, and that makes me think of what she'll do to Gems who just don't know how to fight back. It's horrible."

It took a while for Greg to think of what to say next, but when he did, it was with that fatherly warmth and care that he never ran short of.

"Your mother always believed that Homeworld could never get the last laugh. They did a lot of horrible things, but she told me she always found a way to even the score in the end. You'll all find a way to beat Shungite eventually. Until then, I know none of the Gems will ever stop dusting themselves off and getting back on their feet. It doesn't make the cuts and bruises go away, but that's what time and care are for."

Steven slowly looked up at him, then after a lot of staring, leaned over to hug him.

Connie delicately wiped the start of tears from her eyes at the simple, yet profound speech of comfort. At least for the moment, it had melted away her own fears and apprehensions about the inevitable fight ahead.

"Speaking of cuts and bruises, I happened to snag a few tickets to a big wrestling match in Empire City! This weekend!"

He was far from jovial and ready to hop about in excitement, but the gesture still brought a smile to Steven's face nonetheless. At the very least, he could always enjoy watching staged fights of thematic wrestlers, even if they weren't nearly as extravagant as Beach City's own ring.

Even then, his thoughts were far from about himself. "How many exactly? I bet Lars would love to go."

"Pretty sure I got six just to be sure, they're refundable so I figured why not share them around?"

Before the question could even be asked, Connie quietly sighed. "I don't think my parents would approve. But there's other people to invite anyway, I'm not bothered."

The mix of mild disappointment and assurance made Steven pause a little while, giving him more time to think. "I guess it's worth asking Amethyst, and the other Gems too. You'll be coming, right Dad?"

"Sure. It's not quite my thing, but I reckon a little bonding time can't ever hurt."

"Four tickets then, hm." After further thought, Steven shrugged to put it all aside. "I'll ask around tomorrow. Thanks Dad."

Greg flashed a grin and wink at that, almost adding in a fingergun as well before quickly recalling what he had been told about their very near miss with one of White Diamond's arm ships. A thumbs up served as the replacement gesture.

"No problem little man. And Connie, just let me know if something comes up that you can go to instead, my treat." He reached into the van after that for a can of flourescent pink spray paint and a dust mask. "Until then, I need to start marking out the site boundaries. Take care you two."

The pair continued on from the car wash at that, the hiss of the spray can audible a little while after, until they moved around the corner of that block.

"So, same time tomorrow, Steven?"

"I guess. It's up to Lars when we discuss those ideas of his. Otherwise it's finding ways to help the Off Colours settle in."

Connie nodded. "And Gradie?"

Steven glanced at her, then sighed. "I'll always try to help her overcome her issues. But lately it feels like I can't get through to her, not like how the other Gems do."

Doug's car came into view at the other end of the block, signalling the end of Connie's time in Beach City for the day. She opted to make the most of that remaining time with what encouragement she could provide.

"Don't forget that you have yourself to take care of as well. If you can't help her directly, maybe overcoming problems of your own will inspire her by example."

"That kinda sounds familiar."

"Does it?" Connie tapped her chin in thought. "Well, so long as it works. Garnet's right, we should all be at least comfortable together."

Her departure came at last. After a few pleasantries from Doug to both Steven and Greg, and in return, they drove off back out of Beach City.

Steven quietly sighed one more time. He needed to have that talk with Pearl to clear the air, but for once, he just didn't feel ready for such a thing.

* * *

"So far it's pretty straightforward. Simple yes, but we're trying not to plan ahead to where we don't know what the situation will be like at all."

Those gathered in the living area of the beach house comprised of Steven, Garnet, Peridot, Connie and Pearl, in that order. Lars and Rhodonite stood at either end of the white board, where the former had drawn a variety of crude circles.

"Ideally, our first step is to finish repairing the Nova Thrusters, so we can get around the Gem Colonies and here in weeks instead of months." He labelled one of the larger circles 'Earth' to indicate that. "Did I mention we've decided to go back out in a month?"

The variety of headshakes and shrugs indicated that he had not in fact done that. Rhodonite opted to explain for him.

"We really like Earth, and it's been so wonderful seeing it at last. But, we all decided there's so much more to be done for other Off Colours that we can't settle down forever!"

Steven frowned a little out of concern. It sounded like the Off Colours had really come a long way from their first encounter, though perhaps a little too far in the direction of not fearing Homeworld.

After labelling another of the circles, Lars resumed the explanation. "The plan is to try and make contact with Turquenite without actually going near Elysium. She's by far the best chance at tracking down Gems in need of rescuing on other colonies, because of her access to the communication network that she hopefully hasn't been cut off from. She should be able to track any internal reports of defective Gems, we fly in and save them from shattering, bingo bongo."

Everyone else remained silent, save for Peridot scratching her chin.

Garnet spoke a little later on. "The Diamonds won't wait long to react."

Lars tilted his head in partial agreement. "We know. Considering White Diamond nearly blew us out of the sky, we're not gonna take too many chances on this. But so long as we don't actually attack anything, they won't have as much reason to chase us once we're clear of the planet, right?"

It gave Pearl pause for thought, tapping her chin a couple of times, before finally shrugging. "Possibly. They're extremely intolerant certainly, but sending robonoids down below the surface is much easier than sending entire ships after Gems they want destroyed." She hummed again, that time with a little more concern. "Still, it's likely they'll take steps to counteract further rescue attempts before long."

"But it's still worth working towards until then, right?"

After quite a bit of thought from everyone, the consensus was a solemn nod. Even with the potential risks and escalation, they were in a position to do some real good. To back down from it without solid cause would weigh on them all.

When Garnet stood up, it was with the unspoken support of all the others beside her. "You're right, it is worth it. We save lives, and make Homeworld listen. If that's the most we can do, then we follow it to the end."

Shortly after, Peridot groaned and got to her feet as well, though only so that she could move over to the warp pad. "This is getting sappy, I'm gonna take a look at the ship. Pearl?"

"You go on ahead." In that time, Garnet had briefly nodded to her as an indication she wanted to talk. "I won't be long."

Sure enough, the meeting as it were began to disperse just after Peridot left. Lars went over to talk further with Steven and Connie, Rhodonite standing a little further back in her shy way, while Pearl and Garnet moved aside to have that talk.

Garnet was back to being softer spoken again. "Things are going to improve, Pearl. A lot of the futures I've seen are positive."

"Why bring that up now, and to me alone?" Pearl frowned just a little, unusual for her as of late. "Besides, normally you wait to be asked about that sort of thing."

"Steven will be a little disappointed we can't accompany him to an event tomorrow. At first. That's all I can say."

That really put Pearl's concern up in front. "Now you're being cryptic?"

"A lot of things will happen that night. Many wonderful things. But they all have to happen naturally to be as effective as they deserve. The most I can do is ensure everyone is in the right place for it."

Pearl folded her arms as she realized that any further questions would come to identical answers, only to unfold them again when Steven approached.

The awkward glance between them was thankfully brief when he instead decided to look to Garnet.

"Dad's taking me and a few others to a big wrestling match. Do either of you wanna come?"

Just for a moment, Pearl tightened her lips. Being made aware that he was going to ask such a question meant she was far less flustered for it. "Staged combat through use of fabric padded gloves and all manner of exaggerated and entirely implausible attack moves isn't quite my forte, but I appreciate the invitation regardless. Garnet?"

Garnet shrugged. "Next time, Steven. You'll understand tomorrow."

Steven tilted his head a little, recognizing that familiar tone of Garnet's when she was holding something back. Unlike most times however, he didn't immediately feel the urge to begin questioning what or why.

"I'll let you know then. Are Amethyst and the others still ok?"

After another adjustment of her visor, Garnet nodded. "I still have a clear vision of them returning here safely, with you in their company."

"Ok. I'll see you then I guess."

He was off to the warp pad right after, departing with a small wave to Connie.

Pearl tapped at her chin in thought. "I should probably go join Peridot now. You're sure everything will be alright?"

"Unpredictability is always a concern." After a hum, Garnet tilted her head, and smiled a little. "Right now, I choose to be optimistic."

Just before Pearl had reached the warp pad, Garnet turned to glance at her, that smile widening a little.

"Leave the door open. You'll know when."

* * *

"Take it from me, Lapis. If it were any other person, man, woman and so on, I'd be all up in their case making sure Kiki only gets the absolute best treatment every time they meet. But girl, I trust you to do all that already."

Lapis' smile from that was warm indeed, accompanying a faint tinge to her cheeks. "Thanks Jenny. I was worried it'd make things a little awkward, but now I just feel so relieved."

"You're a real gem of a person Lapis, in the metaphorical sense, since you're an actual Gem and whatnot. Ain't no reason for things to get awkward between us, 'specially when all you're doing is making my twin sister happy."

Coincidentally enough, Jenny's focus shifted just a little from the path ahead to the Big Donut across the street, where she noticed another blue woman sitting just in view of the window inside.

"Hang on a minute, is that the same Gem that showed up in a big water show all that time ago?"

The smile vanished when Lapis took a proper look at Gradie. Even from that distance, she could see a worryingly blank expression of her stare down into the table. Given the ocean was literally right in front of her…

"She's a Lapis like me, but she goes by Gradie. And uh…" A cautious glance to the road later and Lapis was crossing to the Big Donut, leading Jenny right on. "She's usually doesn't hang around Beach City. This is kinda weird."

"Well, might as well see how she's doing, huh? Say, does her being another Lapis mean you're Gem relatives?"

Even after they moved right in front of Gradie's perspective, Lapis noticed no reaction from inside, raising her concern further. "Steven says we're sisters, but it's more like distant cousins. If that."

Entering the shop itself finally made Gradie look up, her expression lightening a little at seeing Lapis, only to sink again when she noticed she had company. The result was a very small wave of her hand where her wrist didn't even leave the surface of the table.

Sadie was far more lively in her greeting as she hurried around from the backroom, only to relax when she saw those familiar faces.

"Hey Lapis, Jenny. Can I get you something, or…"

She tilted her head in Gradie's direction, to which Lapis nodded in a discrete manner. Jenny tilted her head as well to indicate similar intent.

"No problem, I'll be in the kitchen if you need me."

In that time, Gradie had gone right back to her vacant stare at the table, which she maintained even as Jenny sat down and Lapis pulled up a seat of her own. Even the look of concern from both, mostly the latter, still wasn't enough to make her look up.

"Let me guess, Garnet's wondering why I'm not at the meeting."

"Jenny and I just came from Fish Stew Pizza, I haven't seen Garnet at all today."

Jenny nodded to that. "I just tagged along, figured why not help out a Gem that looked real lonely, y'know?"

Gradie twisted her lips to the left, slowly starting to trail her finger along the table surface. "You got the lonely part right. But, there's no helping that." At last she lifted her head, looking directly at Lapis. "I'm really happy for you Lapis. That you actually found someone you want to be with is great to know. I'm just…"

Her eyes went down once more, back to the idle tracing of the table to keep her mind occupied without any further elaboration.

"Gradie, Steven did mention how things went with the Off Colours. Is that why you're upset?"

The idle tracing was stopped abruptly by Gradie's fist clenching up. The downward stare remained. "I'm not upset. It's better for them if I stay away."

Jenny leaned in a little more at that once she had a grasp of what was going on. "I see how it is girl, don't you fret. Running away from people you wanna be friends with ain't the way to do it. I consider myself something of a self-appointed aficionado at socializing and mingling with the crowds. And I know that sometimes when there's a bad start, you gotta roll with it and try again, or move on. Getting stuck is the worst way to go."

Gradie sighed at that point. "Yeah, Garnet and Pearl told me that."

"Then they already got the right idea! So you gotta ask yourself, why aren't you following their very sound and sensible advice, and once you answer that you're good to go!"

After a bit more sighing from Gradie, she slowly lifted her head again, only to recline back instead out of exasperation. "I can't move on because I want to be friends, I want to be involved. But I can't be involved because I don't fit! They have their way of seeing things, and I have mine, and majority rules kinda suck when that happens."

That time it was Lapis who had more insight, seeing as Jenny knew nothing of Gradie's history. "You don't have to fuse to be part of the Off Colours, it's just half of them so far, right?"

"Lapis, it's…" Gradie began to trail off again almost immediately, though in that case it was to take a breath and compose herself.

"I saw Flourite, I saw how many Gems were part of her, and I just got this real sick feeling like I was gonna get pushed into becoming part of her. She didn't even say anything to me. I could tell that the question would come up, I'd be so scared of offending her by saying no in a really nasty way by accident that I'd babble some other answer, and then it'd get worse from there."

Her head went back again after another deep breath. "I can't stop thinking about them all like this, Padparadscha especially. Talking with Garnet and Pearl hasn't changed anything, and talking with you two probably won't either. That's just how I am."

Both were taken a little aback by the defeated tone in her voice, but not enough to close off from her just yet.

After further thought, Lapis took the lead. "Gradie, if fusion still makes you that uncomfortable, take control of it. Own it."

There was a slight sting to her words, as it meant reflecting back on her own experience. Turning her past wrongdoings and trying to make something positive of them was very difficult, but in that case felt like the right move.

"If you're afraid of fusion because you don't want to lose yourself, don't think of it that way. Treat it like something you can always back out of the moment you want to. Not as scary when all you have to say is no, and can always say no at any time, right?"

She noted the look Jenny gave her, that of wanting to know more out of a different kind of concern. Almost certainly for Kiki.

Gradie had already started to think it over, though her own expression remained stern, unsure of just what to take away from Lapis' advice.

Lapis herself took a short breath, then went for the admission. "Garnet, Flourite, none of the Crystal Gems would ever force you into one, you know that. They wouldn't hold you in there either. I wouldn't either." Her lip curled in for a little while, hesitation growing until she finally made the plunge. "I'm not like that anymore. You don't need to be afraid of fusion, or of hurting any Gem's feelings about fusion. You can say no."

After a long pause, Gradie finally sat up and looked directly at Lapis. "And I can say yes."

The small nod was all she needed. Her rise back up was quiet, slipping from the sole chair on her side so she could straighten out her dress and take one more breath.

"You know what, sis? Now I really am not upset. I'll see you around, when I've had time to think."

She was out the door by the next minute, and gone with a quiet launch of her icy wings. Where to that time was only known to her.

When enough time had passed, Lapis slowly turned to Jenny with a shrug. "First time Beach City was evacuated, if you remember the mess that green hand ship made, I stopped one of the Homeworld Gems from making things even worse by fusing with her, so I could keep her under control. And then I took it too far, used her as a way of venting out all the horrible feelings that had been building for years. Equal, but not opposite reactions to each other. Just similar."

Her head tilted while she took a turn to stare down at the table. "Kiki knows I have a lot of flaws, and that I'm working to overcome them. I'm ashamed of what I did in the past, but I'm willing to admit to it, and learn from it. And I know I'll do right by Kiki. I want to be better."

A long pause. The gradual exchange of looks. Finally, Jenny breathed in, having thought it all over for herself.

"You know what, Lapis? I was right about you. Anyone who can admit to all that and not flinch a bit on wanting to change is all cool in my book. Thanks for being honest."

Lapis smiled at last in her own subtle way, capping it off with a shrug. "Anytime, Jenny."

* * *

"All set kiddo?"

Evening had set in, bringing the fresh breeze of the incoming night across the whole beachfront. Greg was standing beside one of the doors where he had put the seat forward, waiting for whichever of the Gems would be coming with them

Steven was slowly making his way over from the beach house at that point, glancing back at the place constantly.

"Yeah. I'm ready."

When he finally reached the car, he found a place to lean against the passenger side and sighed. "Gradie's been gone since yesterday. Lapis said she'd be back tonight, but I thought it'd be before sunset."

As always, Greg's first response was to put a hand on his shoulder. "She's made it pretty clear she's just the sort of person who wants a lot of time to herself, right? Chances are she'll be here when we get back. Until then, try not to worry, okay?"

The sound of the door opening announced the arrival of Amethyst and Peridot, both Gems making their way down the steps at a leisurely pace.

Steven made himself take that calming breath and let the concern subside, if only for the time it took them to come home.

"Alright. If it happens…"

Not long after, all four were in the car, Peridot continuing her little chatter about her experience working on a Gem ship again much to the fascination of both Amethyst and Greg, while Steven stared out across the ocean.

"I must admit that prior to this day I had never been given such an in-depth and tangible opportunity to examine the inner workings of that particular model of faster-than-light spacecraft. Typical Gem maintenance prescribed to the duties of a general assignment Peridot are surface-level at best. Sunstones are the ones given the duty of full mechanical repair after all, being small but durable even in their Era 1 forms. The one we met at the Galaxy Warp is in fact a prime example."

Amethyst cracked a large grin at that. "Until you got a big tyre stuck around her, huh Greg! She was so confused by a big rubber ring! Priceless!"

The light jab to his shoulder from Amethyst made Greg shift just a little, compounded by her reminding him of that day. "I do kinda feel bad for that, she didn't seem mean like the rest of Apatite's group."

It had also become an uncomfortable reminder from Steven, keeping his attention further away from the conversation. The sight of Lapis on the beach in front of the boardwalk however snapped him out of that quiet daze as they slowly rolled past.

"What's she doing out there?"

Peridot leaned right past Amethyst, slipping free of her seatbelt in a way that made Greg uncomfortable, then leaned back with a simple shrug.

"She swore me to secrecy until we left the limits of Beach City. In any case, I think her plan for courting Kiki will be quite successful. She even gave me the honour of making a particular choice in the matter."

As they came around the corner, there was visible movement from Lapis herself, waving to them. The three Gems did the same in return, while Greg settled for a more responsible lifting of his fingers without actually letting go of the wheel.

* * *

A while after the car had turned the corner and moved out of sight, Lapis noticed movement at the side door of _Fish Stew Pizza_. By then the sun had set altogether, with the last hints of evening fading into the ocean, but the moon was more than bright enough for her to see it clearly open and close to a departing person.

Kiki was unexpectedly early to their date.

"Uh oh."

In a single leap, she flew up from the beach and landed right in front of her, catching both arms with a gentle hold, and meeting her face with a soft smile and wide eyed look.

Kiki was briefly startled by the abrupt arrival herself, but soon relaxed back with a soft laugh. "Wow, you're really excited for this huh."

"Actually, it's not quite ready yet. Maybe ten minutes? I really want it to be a surprise."

With a little grin, Kiki nodded and closed her eyes, not even tilting her head to the side a little for a sneak peek. "Okay, I can wait that long."

With a gentle laugh of her own, Lapis led her down the boardwalk with one hand, slowing at the steps, and continuing on to the beach where she had left a chair for her to sit in, just in case.

"Ten minutes. I promise it'll be worth it."

When Kiki nodded, she finally turned to make the finishing touches at last. Only once did she hesitate, having caught sight of Gradie gliding down towards the Temple, and smiling a little more for what it meant.

* * *

"I'll be back in a while Pearl. Take care."

"You too Garnet. Give the Off Colours my regards."

Just before vanishing in the warp beam, Garnet nodded with a knowing smile.

For the first time in a long while, Pearl found herself completely alone, and without any particular activity to occupy her time with as it turned out.

Her eyes slowly started to gravitate towards the phone.

"Maybe, just this once…"

Before she could reach for it, the door unexpectedly opened, Gradie striding through with a deep breath. That alone drew her full attention, a lasting sigh of relief as she rushed over and embraced her.

"Gradie! Wherever did you go?"

"The Siphon. I had to think again."

Gradie remained steady in the embrace, only returning it after Pearl had eased up a little. From there, she chewed at her lip in brief hesitation again, just letting that moment exist a little longer.

When she felt ready at last, the hold loosened, but she didn't take a step back. "Pearl, I…"

"It's okay Gradie. Like I said, everyone understands-"

Gradie brought a finger up to Pearl's lips, politely, but directly asking for that chance to continue.

"Pearl. I want to fuse. With you."

Were there a pin being dropped in Pearl's mind at that moment, it would have crashed and echoed around for how silent she went.

Even after cognitive function began to resume, she was so struck with disbelief that it took no short amount of time for her to find words at all, let alone ones that had relevance or context.

"Gradie…"

"Pearl. I figured out something today. Something Lapis told me made me understand everything that's been going on in my crazy, whackjob head. This isn't me wanting to prove Shungite wrong, or about me proving to you all definitively that I'm not some horrible fusion hater."

She took a breath, her hands coming up and around to Pearl's arms, gripping them for some support between them both. "Every single time I've fused in my existence, it's never been on my terms. Someone else has always initiated it. I've never been given a choice that I actually wanted to say yes to." The lip bite came back, her desperate internal hope that Pearl wouldn't take full offence, that she would truly understand where she was coming from. "Just once, I want it to be on my terms. No pressuring, no enticement, no force. Just two, and only two Gems coming together, and getting to have a clear choice on the matter. I want to know what it's like to be on truly equal grounds."

At last she took a needed breath, coming down from that frantic ramble like the ocean turning calm in the midst of a storm. "You don't have to say yes. Because this isn't about actually getting to fuse. I get what happened between you and Steven is still a tricky thing and I respect that, I just had to ask while I really had the nerve to be up front about it. No more evading, no more getting awkward and trying to slip away from the issue. Just yes, or no."

That lingering stare continued on, neither of the two breaking from it for even a moment. Both thinking, considering, evaluating, wanting.

Pearl swallowed, and after clearing her throat, tightened her arms around Gradie. "Yes. Let's fuse, Gradie. Just the two of us, tonight."

For the briefest time, Gradie's eyes sparkled into five pointed stars. When she embraced Pearl shortly after, all the apprehension and discomfort was gone, replaced with pure, untainted joy.

"Your room?"

Eyes watery from the onset of tears, Pearl still managed to cast a fleeting glance back at the Temple door, and thought back to what Garnet had mentioned the previous day.

"Like that first night." She leaned her head back just a little, gazing into Gradie's eyes when she did the same. "Almost. Just better."

* * *

The arena was rife with excitement, even with the pre-roll to the matches for the night blaring on and on. Nothing could keep the expansive gathering from cheering the names of all those that would soon be duking it out for their entertainment.

Aside from Peridot of course. Situated between Steven and Amethyst, all she could do for the time being was grumble impatiently while staring down at the still empty ring. The roll of announcements and visual advertisements alike weren't even factoring in.

"I don't recall any fight with Homeworld requiring this much trivial distraction and time wasting beforehand."

"Eh, that's business." Amethyst idly flexed her fingers while gauging out the announcer as she began to approach the ring at last. "It's a lot faster back home, believe me."

Right about then, Lars and Sadie shuffled along from the end of the row, moving up to sit beside Amethyst on the far left of the group, thanking Greg along the way for the tickets as they did so.

It was enough of a distraction to tide Peridot over until the announcer finally got up into the ring

" _Well lookie here folks! This is a turnout they'll be yammering about for weeks to come!_ "

The crowd roared in response.

" _Don't you go worrying your pretty heads now! Tonight we're starting out with an extra special tag team bonanza!_ "

Amethyst and Steven glanced at each other briefly, then shrugged.

" _Give it up for the first pair, the smooth, the elusive, and the dazzling; Grey Gladiator and Sea Serpent!_ "

The two fighters jogged down from the red pathway, looking rather much as was described by the announcer. The man was painted entirely in grey and only had a few leather straps across his chest, thankfully fitted separate from the red silk shorts, while the woman was painted blue with a smattering of sequins across whatever skin there was to give the scaled look.

" _And now for the the young hopefuls, the two time challengers, the always spectacular; Ice Queen and Fire Lighter!_ "

Like their opponents, Ice Queen was simply painted a light blue with glitter sprinkled over her body, while Fire Lighter had a mix of purple and green hair to match with the flame printed up his chest.

Not quite as elaborate as some of the costumes of Beach City's fighters, but not entirely vapid in theming.

Without that reference in mind, all Peridot saw was sparkly humans in silk shorts and sports bras glaring each other down while the announcer strutted about in her stunning deep green dress.

" _Let's hear it folks! Who's the crowd favourite tonight?_ "

A mixture of chanting all four names went out across the arena. From where the main group were sitting, no particular fighter was standing out amongst the the rest. Lars and Sadie were notably the only ones near them to cheer for Sea Serpent.

The announcer however was quick to assert otherwise. "Looks like Grey Gladiator has a reputation to live up to as one of the first fighters!" She leaned over to where an assistant was holding up a coin, which she promptly clasped and presented to all. " _What do you say? Heads for the lady, tails for the man?_ "

A cheer of approval from the crowd was quickly silenced by the plink of her coin flip. After glancing down at it, she skillfully slid it back to the assistant with her shoe while turning to the crowd once again.

" _Looks like we're in for a mixed fight folks! Grey Gladiator versus Ice Queen!_ "

The excitement finally began to build as the announcer stepped down from the ring at last, while the two fighters and the referee stepped up, both readying for the slog to come.

With a chance to speak, Steven finally nudged Peridot for her attention. "This is it. Just a whole lot of rough house brawling from here on out!"

* * *

"Alright, you can open your eyes now."

When Kiki did so, she was awestruck by what had been conjured from the water across the beachfront.

A glimmering sheet of what looked to be pristine ice stretched out for several metres, bordered by a series of pillars that suspended misty curtains high above their heads. To the left was a raised section of ice, upon which the watery figures of a small ensemble of musicians remained static. Expressionless, but not actually uncannily so.

Lapis gently led her across to the newly formed floor by the hand, her own appearance changing in the process to bring back those heeled shoes she had learned to form at the community dance, not to mention the sparkling dress that replaced her usual halter and skirt.

"This is what Gradie and I were really working on together, finding ways to combine her warm ice technique and the variety of shapes I can work with."

It was only then that Kiki really took notice of how not-cold the floor was. Were it not for the salt impurities strewn through it, she might've guessed to be glass instead. Knowing just what had gone into it made it all the more incredible to witness.

"Wow. All this for a date?"

A smile and shrug came from Lapis. "I wanted to really do something unique. That said…" She broke from the handholding to make her way over to the musician platform, where a boombox was situated amongst the figures themselves, which she in turn began to set up. "I can't actually recreate that many sounds with water, so it's not perfect. But I hope it's enough."

"Enough? Are you kidding?" Kiki didn't hesitate on taking both of Lapis' hands the moment she turned back around, bringing her back to the centre of the floor. "This is so sweet I can't even describe it."

All the lingering concerns and doubts washed away from Lapis. No longer worried about not quite reaching that pinnacle, or messing up some minute detail that would cascade into a disastrous evening.

"Greg gave me a few tips on what human-Gem dating is going to be like. And, I'm ready to see it through. Wherever this leads us."

She adjusted the shared hold so that their arms were now at the starting position for the first dance she had planned, all while staring right into Kiki's glimmering eyes.

"I'm ready too, Lapis."

With one more little smile, Lapis discretely had one of the water figures reach over to the boombox, and set the music playing at last.

* * *

Gradie's third visit to Pearl's room since her return was by far the most exciting, and for the last reason she had ever expected before that moment had come.

Actual excitement at the prospect made her fly up to the topmost fountain, which she wistfully roamed around as distant memories began to resurface in a new light. Memories that had once made her uncomfortable to look back on were finally beginning to make her smile. Those with Pearl and Rose anyway.

When Pearl finally arrived at the surface as well, Gradie gazed over at her in a blissful manner. The feeling of pure relief was stronger than ever, being so very close to releasing that heavy burden on her soul, but no longer bothered by the wait.

"Thank you, Pearl."

Pearl quietly laughed while waving it all off, striding across the water with light steps. "Gradie, very soon you'll understand just how much I appreciate you being here again. Whatever you may think, you're an inspiration. And besides, we won't need words to understand each other for tonight."

Gradie nodded, breaking from the gaze briefly while she did so. "I remember. Obviously we still had secrets from each other, but there was enough shared." After a breath, she lifted her head back up and approached Pearl the rest of the way, offering both her hands. "Now that we don't have any more big secrets to keep…"

"It'll only mean there's nothing to hide, the rest will remain the same. You won't lose yourself for a moment, I promise. We can be stable, but still very temporary. Fusion is extremely flexible like that."

She took Gradie's hands at last, gently guiding her into the same position that they had taken the first time. "Do you remember all the steps? I can walk you through them again."

"It might've been thousands of years ago, but I think I've got it covered. And dancing with Connie did help refresh my memory."

"Alright. I'll lead then, if you don't mind of course."

Gradie lightly flexed her fingers with a small shrug, to which Pearl nodded, and prepared to make that first step.

* * *

At the spot she had chosen, a towering cliff face that descended right into the ocean below, Shungite sat down in a cross-legged position, and drew out her flute.

"Star Sapphire, what is the progression I must play?"

For a while, nothing happened. Then, to anyone who might have been observing at that moment, Shungite abruptly began to play her flute.

She alone knew of exactly what Star Sapphire had spoken in that period of time. Notes to be played, notes that would resonate out not just across the ocean, but the planet itself, and eventually even back to Elysium itself.

From the moment her lips touched the flute, the procession began.

For every note, a blow was struck between Grey Gladiator and Ice Queen, Lapis Lazuli and Kiki Pizza danced to the next segment of the song playing out across the conjured dance floor, and both Gradie and Pearl drew one step further into their own dance, towards the end result of fusion.

Were it not for the deliberate timing of Shungite's instrumentation, it could have easily been a simple miracle of cosmic coincidence. But with Star Sapphire guiding her hands, granting more of her perception of time, there was just enough influence to see all three events happened in exact rhythm to further amplify the strength of her song.

Violence, peace and unity, all collecting together to the tune escaping that empowered flute.

* * *

In the Temple, the warp pad activated briefly, materializing Garnet and all four of the Off Colours in a tight position that they quickly dispersed from. Garnet herself remained quiet throughout, lifting a finger to her lips once clear.

"Remember, questions come later. Observe first."

Once each of the Off Colours had nodded in acknowledgement, Garnet approached the Temple door. Open, just as she had asked of Pearl the previous day.

There she slipped into a casual posture, leaning against one door to silently watch as the dance continued, while still leaving room for the other Gems to view what was occurring as well. Rhodonite in particular grew visibly excited when she really caught onto what Garnet had told them all earlier.

"It's really gonna happen? They really are fusing?"

Garnet gave a little nod, while Flourite was the one to silently remind Rhodonite of the need for quiet at that point in time.

By then, the dance had almost reached its conclusion; the gemstones of both starting to radiate energy as they drew together in time again, locking eyes once more.

One last moment as individuals, the turning point of it all.

"If you have any doubts, Gradie…"

"I'm set on this Pearl." Gradie took that opportunity to swallow. "All the way."

At the pinnacle of Shungite's distant song, both Gems took one step back from each other, left hands clasped to maintain a bond, then stepped forward until they made physical contact.

It lasted less than a second before their bodies lost all physical appearance and mass, merging into one singular form of shining light as all fusions did. The hum rang out as both gemstones swayed around each other until finding their positions on the new form as it took shape, standing just a head taller than Pearl herself.

What had once been sandals and long shorts transformed into delicate slippers and thigh high socks. The long blue dress of Gradie became a translucent sheen of ice, overlaying the thicker material of the skirt beneath, with the single pair of sleeves taking on identical properties.

From the head flowed a smooth sheet of cream coloured hair, held back by the pale blue headband that took shape just above Pearl's gemstone, while the chest came to bear a blue-ringed star that encapsulated them both.

In the final moments, the figure moved to stand on one foot, taking the time to spin as the last of the colours settled into place.

After thousands of years of non-existence, Moonstone finally opened her eyes.

And immediately turned to look right at Garnet, who was standing on the edge of the fountain. Moonstone's hands immediately went to her hips.

"I suppose since you already foresaw all this to know to tell Pearl to leave the door open, there is little point in questioning the lack of consideration for their privacy in forming me." Moonstone blinked a few times after that, lifting one hand to hold her chin while she pondered. "Wow, I am far more articulated in the vocabulary department than I seem to recall."

Garnet remained where she was, starting with a shrug, then twisting her lips, and finally nodding. Something she might have unconsciously picked up from Steven.

"If I asked before, it would have interrupted the natural flow that led to this. I could never do that to any Gem."

Moonstone's thoughtful expression had faded long before then, though her hand came up once more to lightly touch at her throat instead.

When less than a metre away, Garnet slowly reached up to remove her visor, leaving nothing between them as she stared up with a pure look to her face.

"Moonstone, that was as far as I looked into the future, I'll leave if desired, so long as you hear me out. I just wanted this moment to be free of any expectation. Just like you've proven yourself to be, Gradie."

That made Moonstone take a step back out of surprise, the hand at her neck clasping around Gradie's gemstone, both out of nervousness and a level of growing anticipation. She was still a little unsettled by the way Garnet was speaking, but she also felt as if there was something far more prominent to come.

"What exactly are you getting at? Gradie made it very clear to Pearl that my formation was not from any particular desire or need to prove Shungite, or any other Gem for that matter wrong."

Garnet tightened her lip, then very gently reached for Moonstone's free hand, drawing it up until the other came to rest with it as well.

"That is the point, Moonstone. You're not a fusion that exists to fulfil a purpose, or fight a battle, or prove a point. You exist because you want to exist. You exist, because your component Gems are no longer wounded." Her hands slipped from Moonstone's as she had to carefully wipe her eyes clear. "You've healed."

For the part of Moonstone that was Pearl, it came as a waking moment that not only had Shungite utterly failed to ruin fusion for her as guessed, but that extra realization that she had truly started to move on from the legacy of Rose Quartz.

For the part that was Gradie, it was nothing short of profound. In all her concerns about perception and desires to appease those around her without being overt about it, she had actually started to forget about the root cause of all her grief and misery.

She was ready to stop feeling like a victim, and be herself once again.

"Garnet, I…"

Just briefly, through the teary emotional mist clouding her eyes, Moonstone caught a glimpse down past the edge of the fountain. The Off Colours were still huddled around the doorway, watching them in complete awe.

While half of her had very much wanted the whole matter to be private, she also realized the great importance of giving hope to other victims of Homeworld. And that was enough for her to leave the matter be.

"We can leave this next dance as just that, correct? I think I would prefer to remain as myself for the duration of the night. You do understand I hope."

In her own subtle way, Garnet smiled and nodded just a little. "Of course."

There was no more apprehension, or concern or worry. Both fusions held hands and began to dance without a second thought. Even the notable height difference, made obvious now that the pair were very close together, was of little inhibition in finding the pattern that came naturally to them both.

For the moment, neither was questioning why they were in almost perfect sync with the other, simply living in that serene moment instead.

* * *

" _And that's a ringout for Ice Queen! What a fight that was folks! Let's give it up for the Grey Gladiator!_ "

That same roaring cheer went out around the whole audience, drowning out whatever was being said away from the microphone while Ice Queen was carried off by medical staff.

When it settled as the intermission before the second fight got underway, Peridot took it as a chance to voice her thoughts on the whole matter at last.

"I will admit, it may have taken a while to get going, but seeing humans dressed up in silly attire with loose theming is more entertaining than I first gave the notion credit for."

"Great Peri, you've managed to make an 'okay-to-meh' fight sound actually boring now."

Steven shot a glance over at Amethyst. "You don't have to be mean. When the next fighting season in Beach City begins we can just-"

A dull pain emanating from his gemstone made him lurch forward at that moment. It was there and gone within a second, but still very noticeable. He was still about to brush it off as nothing given how brief it was, until he noticed both Amethyst and Peridot had reacted in the same way.

Greg had also taken notice by then, clearly unsettled. "Woah, did the planets align or something? Need some fresh air?"

After a few exchanged glances, Steven lowered his head and sighed. All three of them had the same concerns, not to mention only one of them was actually finding real enjoyment in the night anyway.

"I think we should head home. The others might worry."

When the others came to agree, Greg nodded and got up to make his way out, with the three of them not far behind. Once Steven explained things to Lars and Sadie of course. It being the intermission thankfully meant little annoyance with others in the audience, allowing for a quiet departure well before the second half of the match began.

* * *

Kiki sighed deeply when the music came to the inevitable end. While there was a definite soreness in her ankles from how long the dance had gone on for, she couldn't care less. All that mattered at that point was sharing Lapis' company for as long as she could.

"Is dancing a natural talent of Gems, or did you practise just for this?"

Lapis smirked with a flick of her hair. "Both, mostly the latter. You're really good too y'know?"

"Eh, usually I'm just alright…" Kiki glanced at her feet again, thinking on that. "We didn't even flinch though, I kinda expected I'd end up stepping on your toes at some point. Weird."

"Maybe we just got lucky. I wouldn't really notice anyway." Lapis loosened her hold around Kiki's waist so that she could walk her back to the chair. "It's just hard light after all, can't bruise or bleed. Takes a lot to hurt even a little."

In a point of irony, her gemstone flared up a jolt of pain that subsided before she could even reach around to it on a reflex.

Kiki's first reaction was to lean around and get a look at the gemstone herself, seeing nothing out of the ordinary at all.

"You okay?"

Lapis didn't respond at first, stretching out all her limbs, and as a precaution summoning out her wings once Kiki was clear. Nothing felt different, and the fact that all of the construct was intact implied her water kinesis was unaffected.

"I think so. But I'll have to check with the other Gems to be sure, see what they think."

She made a point of retrieving the boombox before stepping back onto the beach at last. While Kiki sat down, she turned to focus on carefully melting the whole dance area back into the ocean without so much as a splash, leaving virtually no trace behind by the end.

Despite the momentary panic, Kiki herself still felt immensely pleased with how things had gone overall.

"Thank you, Lapis. This was a wonderful first date."

"Sorry to cut it short then." Lapis smiled when saying that at first, but after a little while settled into a more solemn expression. "You really liked it? I figured there'd be a bit more chatting, and getting to know each other along the way. That sort of stuff."

Kiki settled into a softly beaming smile at that. "Guess you know what to plan for our second date huh?"

"Yeah, I think I have a little more than TV shows to talk about now. I'll come up with something soon."

She looked to _Fish Stew Pizza_ after that, tilting her head. "I know it's only a couple blocks away, but can I fly you home anyway?"

"Sure, I'd love to see the town at night."

Kiki got to her feet and turned around, arms up in the air just as she had learned before. Just after hearing the rush of water, she was whisked up from the ground with barely a jarring jolt, once again sailing through the sky in Lapis' secure grip. Loving every moment of it.

* * *

"Something has just occurred to me, Garnet."

"Mm?"

"I really do enjoy existing again."

The dance had gone uninterrupted since beginning, and while little had been said verbally, much had been exchanged between them visually, through glances and expressions alone.

"That's wonderful to hear, Moonstone."

"Memories that were once faded have become clear again, from both Pearl and Gradie. I look back on past events in a new light, and entirely comprehend choices where one or the other only perceived reckless decision. I understand what it is like to mourn, to have regret and anguish, and then leave it all behind in favour of better thoughts. It is very strange, and yet wonderful."

"This is the real kind of fusion, Moonstone. I'm so glad you've found the right balance."

Right after saying that, Garnet halted the dance, looking quite concerned. "Moonstone, brace yourself.

"What? Whatever could possibly-"

She gasped loudly while nearly slapping both hands over Pearl's gemstone where the jolt originated from. It was impossible to not notice Garnet clenching her hands tightly as well, until the pain vanished for them both.

Garnet flexed her fingers afterwards, glancing between both gemstones. "Shungite. She's up to something. It has to be her."

"I certainly will not argue with that deduction, it is unlikely that Homeworld would send yet another Gem after us so soon." Moonstone lowered her hands at last, lightly touching one to her throat on the way. Oddly enough Gradie's gemstone had been unaffected.

Despite taking a breath, the rising anger in Garnet began to simmer over a little. "The nerve. We can't have one peaceful night without her getting in the way…"

And then faded back down when cool reason came back to the surface. "It didn't ruin things irrecoverably, did it?"

"No, I do not believe so." Moonstone took a passing look at the still open doorway. None of the Off Colours seemed to be in any distress over a sudden jolt, further adding to her concern. "We can investigate the source at a later time." She looked to Garnet again with a small smile. "I think I will remain this way a while longer. It would be nice to greet the others for the first time. Meeting you was quite pleasant indeed."

"Likewise."

Moonstone took a breath, then with a graceful turn, pushed up into the air with just enough force to glide across Pearl's room and come to rest at the doorway, very slightly ducking her head down to exit into the company of the Off Colours.

"Greetings to you all. My name is Moonstone, and I'm sure you can understand why Gradie, as a fellow Off Colour, has some residual discomforts about her sense of self and her many insecurities. But now she currently has Pearl to fill in those many gaps and instill much needed confidence, leading to my existence. So please, do feel free to ask of me whatever you will."

* * *

The last note echoed out into space with a disappointed sigh from Shungite.

"Insufficient. Not enough cohesion. Still lacking. Incomplete. Not whole, can't form. Those words repeated over and over?"

After another sigh she closed her eyes and set the flute down.

"I'm sorry, sister. Clearly the secret to their power eludes me yet."

A few breaths later she opened her eyes, that time staring right out across the ocean.

"I need something more palpable. Synchronization was obviously not enough. A direct channel, a rendition. Risky, how to achieve it…"

She tightened her lips.

"Are you sure, my Diamond? Can she withstand being imbued with that kind of distilled harmonic resonance?"

Another pause, then an eventual nod as she stood up, towering over the land once again in her natural size.

"I will see it done then, when time allows. Await my report in the coming hours, there is much I wish to share in greater detail. A proposition to make."

* * *

"See you tomorrow kiddo."

"Bye Dad."

The sea breeze was nipping at that hour, especially compared to the warmth of the car as it drove up the road to the carwash.

Amethyst and Peridot were already starting to make their way up the beach, Steven following after a little later once he felt ready to.

"Well, brief as this evening of entertainment was, I did enjoy it enough to desire yet another at some future point."

"Go ask Mr Smiley about the fights, Peri. He'll get you a seat and all the times to watch."

"I might just do that."

When it became apparent that Steven had no input, Amethyst gradually slowed her pace in order to let him catch up. A light nudge to the arm brought him out of the downward gaze.

"Come on, it wasn't a fun fight anyway. The costumes were lame and they didn't smash each other into the floor even once! Don't look so glum."

The upbeat attitude about it all wasn't quite enough to keep him from sighing in defeat. "I thought it'd be a nice night for the three of us at least. But I think I know who interrupted it, and now all I can think about is…"

They came around the edge of the cliff face against which the Temple sat, casting a view of the balcony to them, as well as the cream-skinned large woman leaning on the railing.

All three Gems stood there in momentary wonderment, until the implication finally rang through.

"No way…"

There was a singular glance exchanged between them, before they all sprinted around to the steps and thundered right up to where Moonstone was enjoying the night ocean view. Whatever sullen mood there was had evaporated at long last.

Moonstone herself only turned to face them all when the moment felt right, a radiant smile across her face that carried Pearl's nurturing nature, as well as Gradie's own blissful mood.

"I have a distinct memory from Pearl of you being perpetually excited to meet a giant woman after being told her, Steven." With that ever present grace, Moonstone moved up onto one foot and twirled on the spot effortlessly. When she came to a stop, she smiled again and knelt down before all three of them. "I may not be giant, merely large, but was I still worth the wait?"

To the surprise of all, Peridot was the first to exclaim her excitement at Moonstone's existence. "Absolutely! Even if we had no idea we were waiting for this to happen, this is an incredible feat of stable fusion I didn't think was possible beyond our very own Garnet!"

Moonstone nodded, casting her eyes downward a bit as other memories surfaced, then looking to Peridot again. "Gradie is, was concerned you'd feel uncomfortable about her fusing like this. She wants you to know she's very happy and humbled that's not the case."

Upon noticing Steven's quizzical look, she adjusted her gaze and attention accordingly. "If you are wondering if I am indeed like Garnet because my form appears so stable and cohesive, then I can safely say it is not the case. I am my own personality and form, but ultimately Pearl and Gradie are still individuals within, as they agreed upon. They decided to maintain this form as a display of unity, even if it is not fully natural and 'organic' in a sense. I do hope you can comprehend that."

Steven nodded quietly, then after a bit of thought, went in for the gentle embrace with the fusion. "You're still wonderful. Not using contractions sounds a little weird, but that's okay."

Moonstone's smile widened a little more for that, her arms moving to embrace him in turn. "Pearl also wants you to know that she apologizes for keeping her distance these past weeks, that she feels ready to mend the discourse. It appears I have been a truly mutual fusion of healing for both within, which is all I could ask for."

When they parted from the embrace at last, Steven sniffling a little after, she finally turned to Amethyst.

Amethyst looked back at her for a little while, then rested a hand on her hip. "What do a sword and spear make, huh?"

It was hardly the kind of question expected, but one that made Moonstone think nonetheless. "Hm, I have yet to actually consider that. But there is no reason we cannot determine that right now."

As soon as she was on her feet, a hand went to each of her gemstones, drawing the respective weapons, which she brought together in a soft flash of light. The resulting weapon she twirled around, then stood up beside herself for them all to look at.

"A partisan, it would seem. I suppose no-one can say I am indecisive about any issues that may arise in that case."

Her soft chuckle, done with the back of her hand pressed to her still closed lips, quickly died down as none of the other Gems understood her joke in the slightest. Her weapon was dematerialized shortly after with a mild look of disappointment. "For the record, that was Gradie's sense of humour at play."

After softly clearing her throat, she reached a hand down to all three. "Garnet made me aware of something neither of my components truly understood before that moment. Fusion can express so very many forms of love, care, and bonding. It can be used to harm in some cases yes, but inversely it can also heal. Whatever schemes Shungite has yet to play out, we will always have the capacity to come back from any damage she inflicts upon us. Again and again. We will drive her off Earth, together."

Rather appropriately, Garnet emerged from the beach house at that point, having watched the conversation, while Lapis flew down at last having seen all the activity. In the exchange that followed, that true sense of unity amongst all the Crystal Gems began to resonate in its truest form. No more secrets, no more distancing from each other.

When they all embraced each other, it was with a truly common goal.

To protect Earth, and each other.

The star closed in around the group embrace, then shrank to black entirely.

* * *

" _Commence report;_

 _The recent suspension of developing both the CS and SM devices in lieu of advancing the Cold Star Carbon project to completion has proven to be more of a setback than previously anticipated. As well documented, attempts to siphon harmonic energy from the renegades present on this planet proved unsuccessful in a stabilization and excitation of Carbon's latent energy reserves. Whether this is due to her recent failed awakening or some other force that is beyond my ability to investigate is unknown._

 _While I work towards this new avenue of awakening Carbon, I would like to put forward a compilation of schematics and designs for a new proxy armament platform that would make sufficient use of available resources and assets. Given the samples provided, as well as more recent developments in extension technology, I trust that your scientists, technicians and engineers, my Diamond, can develop a working prototype within a suitable amount of time._

 _And, if I might be graced with such an honour, my Diamond, I would like to dub this new prototype; Project Unity._

 _End report._ "


	14. The Ballad of Shungite

"It's called a piano. Easy to learn, fun to play, and unlike some instruments you can play it together without a problem."

Both of the Rutile Twins took their time looking over the grand piano they were sitting at next to Steven. Beach City's music store had long been of curiosity to them in particular after one of Peridot's spontaneous performances during ongoing ship maintenance.

"So, pressing a particular key enacts a mechanical motion-"

"-that results in a metallic cord of specific tension being struck."

"Exactly. Wow, you two worked that out really quickly huh?" His optimism bolstered, Steven reached over for the sample music book to set up for them, quickly flicking through to the back where the basic guide was located. "This is the written version of music, just like how languages work. Different shapes mean different sounds, and they come together in different ways. This is highest C."

He tapped the rightmost key on the piano while pointing to to the respective note on the page.

"And over there on the left is lowest A."

He moved his finger to again demonstrate the connection.

Rutile Left hummed with her hand on her chin while studying the example notes further. Rutile Right opted to learn more of the corresponding notes by playing them individually. Before long, they looked to each other and nodded.

"This is a remarkable form of language. Gems are formed with an inherent ability to understand many forms of communication."

"It is part of the knowledge that we are all formed with. Apparently music is no different in this regard."

They both looked to Steven after that, Rutile Left leaning forward a little as Rutile Right leaned back to accommodate.

"Is there a piece you would recommend for developing the skill?"

"Something that would cover the array of various notes and other details."

"Hm, I'll need to check." Steven carefully reached over to the book, bringing it down so that he could comfortably browse back through the available songs. "I didn't expect you two to pick it up so quickly, it took Peridot a while just to understand the point of making music."

When he found one that looked ideal, he set the book back up for them both. "I think you'll both like this one. It doesn't have the lyrics printed, but the music is still really good."

"Then we will give it a go.

"Yes, we will try this."

After acquainting themselves with the key layout, including a few test notes, the Twins began to play to their own sides of the piece. It wasn't long before the pace picked up to match the tempo, both of them smiling as the music itself began to flow in a very appealing manner.

"Wow, you really are picking this up on the fly. It's amazing."

Across the room, the owner of the store looked up from the current book keeping in the direction of the Gems. He listened in mild surprise at the apparent talent on display for a little while before returning to his work with a soft nudge of his glasses.

Before long, the Rutile Twins were fully immersed in the music, each remaining in perfect time with the other as they played the bass and the treble respectively. Nothing that a single human couldn't achieve on their own certainly, but then not within mere minutes of walking in and seeing the instrument for the first time.

At the end, both smiled in warm delight at the feeling of enjoyment that playing it out brought, further encouraged by Steven's respectful applause.

"That was truly fascinating."

"So wonderfully engaging."

Steven nodded with that beaming smile of his. "There's electronic versions of pianos that are much lighter and can have extra options. They use speakers for sound instead of string vibrations, but it's close enough. All Peridot would have to do is hook it up to the ship and you two can play whenever you like."

Both Rutiles looked to each other with glee, then back to him yet again.

"Yes, that would be great."

"Definitely something we would appreciate."

Their attention soon turned back to the book, both browsing through more of the pieces available. After a little while, Right turned her head back once more.

"Would you like a turn, Steven?"

"Well, it definitely won't be as good as that. But sure, I'll give it a go."

Once the Rutile Twins had shifted over on the seat, he moved along towards the middle. A quick browse of his own through the book brought him to a piece he was at least familiar with, and thus had a much better chance of actually being able to play without interruption.

"Alright. Sorry if this goes a little off key. It's easier to play music when there's something to sing about. But since there's no argument or other big event that needs a song that won't work so well."

At the moment he struck the first key, a faint voice echoed in from far behind. For the moment he shrugged it off and continued with the first phase of the song.

Until he heard it again, just audible enough to make sense of.

 _Minor increase in energy levels, analyzing stability readings._

"Hm. I think astral projection is trying to kick in. Nudge me if I start dozing off out of nowhere."

With a pair of confused glances looking on, he returned to the piece, only for the voice to return immediately.

 _Notify our Diamond of the development, continue monitoring._

He didn't recognize the voice of the Gem he was apparently hearing from, but without a more substantial reason to stop he didn't intend on ending the recital before it really got going.

"This one has a tricky sequence under the melody, but I'll give it a go anyway."

He began to pick up the pace with his notes, focusing down on the page more and more.

 _Energy levels continuing to rise. Possible harmonic vibrations occurring._

"Steven?"

"It's okay, I got this."

Rutile Right clasped his shoulder at that moment, trying to break him out of the fierce stare at the page. "Steven, these aren't the notes printed here."

 _My Diamond, we believe the proposition of a second attempt is in progress at this very moment._

Steven looked down at his hands, only just coming to realize that they were moving of their own accord. Repeating the same pattern of notes now, over and over.

"Rutile!"

'Steven!"

A bright light began to envelop the walls farthest from his vision. His hands grew warm from the intensity at which they played every note. Panic was rising from within.

 _Harmonic resonance is confirmed, rising steadily. Formation is imminent!_

"Get Garnet here! Quick!"

He couldn't hear the Rutile Twins by that point. The light had encapsulated virtually all of the music store, leaving a quickly shrinking circle around himself, and the piano. Under the increasingly clear voices, the sound of a flute began to manifest.

 _Monitor power distribution! Prepare for potential dissonance wave!_

Just like that, he felt Rutile Right's hand vanish from his shoulder as they were both swept up in the light, leaving just him and the piano left.

Across from the instrument came Shungite, apparently floating into view in her cross-legged position. Playing her flute to perfect timing with Steven's wild fingers crashing down on the keys. Her cold, unfeeling eyes staring right at him.

"Shungite! What's this all about!?"

She made no sign that she had any intention of removing the flute from her lips. Instead, she let the unfolding scene around them speak for itself.

The dome that contained Carbon's gemstone materialized from the endless light surrounding them, many Gems lining the outside platform. In the distance, behind Shungite, he could see the feet and ankles of White Diamond looming over the lab, and nothing more.

Carbon herself was situated on the pillar just as Lapis had described months previous. Glowing with an impossible black energy.

 _Join us, Carbon. Wake from your slumber. You are made whole now._

The song played between Steven and Shungite reached its crescendo. A blinding flash of that dark energy forced Steven to close his eyes and turn his head from the sight of Carbon beginning to form, his fingers still pounding away without delay.

Every note of the song was ringing in his ears, between the sharp tones of the piano and the lingering gusts of the accursed flute. It was all wrong, he wanted nothing to do with it. He wanted to be free.

"Please stop! Please!"

Almost immediately after, he somehow felt his body position change entirely, still keeping his eyes closed. He was on his arms and knees, hunched over fully, a searing cold encompassing his body.

After several seconds he tilted up a bit, brought his hands before his face, and finally opened his eyes.

Instead of his normal, mildly stubby hands, he saw those that could only be Carbon's.

Bone bleached white, lithe and slightly too long in proportion, tipped in void black nails that gave him the impression of ten tiny black holes staring up at him.

A second pair of hands took hold of them, a much softer white, with a very faint hint of blue. The nails were appropriately an icy blue, and far more natural in shape.

He easily recognized White Diamond's hand from the time she had tried to capture both himself and Connie.

"Welcome, Carbon. How do you feel?"

Another hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. Thankfully in that case, it was back to the space of the music shop, right into Garnet's tight embrace.

"Steven!"

The feeling of searing cold persisted as he sank back against her, struggling to keep his eyes open before finally giving in.

"Carbon… She's awake…"

Pearl looked deeply concerned when she brought the glass of water over to Steven. Even with Garnet and Amethyst either side for comfort and support, he looked very distressed. The Rutile Twins had only just left to go warn everyone at the ship about Shungite's latest exploits.

"Drink slowly, and breathe calmly. There's no rush to explain, we're not going anywhere."

He followed that first bit of advice as best he could, letting the cool water soothe his nerves as much as the rest of him would allow. The larger part that was driven by the anxiety of being forced into taking action that he had no choice in, just by playing a piano.

What actually happened simply left him confused and full of questions more than anything. That much he couldn't contain.

"I don't get why she suddenly decided to help Carbon form. Why now?"

* * *

Pearl blinked in surprise. "We barely know what her plans are, Steven. I don't think any of us has worked out a real pattern to her actions."

"She tried getting at the corrupt Gems here, took one in exchange for Gradie, and then unleashed control devices attached to other corrupted Gems. There are patterns to be found."

The attention turned to Garnet after her cold assertion. Her lips tightened as she gave it some more thought. "It has to be after you touched Carbon's mind, Steven. Shungite didn't plan on that connection forming, since it was Apatite's involvement that led to it, but she clearly found a way to make use of it afterwards."

Steven looked back on what had happened since at great length. The sudden onset of headaches they all shared was definitely too recent to not be connected somehow, though there was still no context. On the other hand, the forced fusion devices had nothing to do with restoring a Gem that couldn't form properly, and certainly not with his ability to heal.

They simply didn't have enough information to work out what the next step was. And yet the now growing possibility that Shungite would leave was becoming motivation to investigate further. There were many ways to end her schemes on Earth that would be bad for the Crystal Gems. But just as many ways that would be very good for them, as well as humanity as a whole.

"Then I'll use that connection. I'll ask Carbon what's going on, and maybe even convince her to tell Shungite to leave."

All of the other Gems looked to Steven for a little while, then sighed in almost perfect union. No-one wanted to argue when they knew that there was no case to be made against.

Thus it was a surprise when Garnet stood up, looking very determined. "We'll do one better while you're asleep, Steven. We're going to find Shungite, so you can talk to her."

Pearl leapt on the spot in near fright. "What!? After she nearly shattered you two?"

Amethyst was quick to her feet as well, equally distraught about the proposition. "She's not gonna talk to us! Every time she's just attacked and tricked us!"

When she finally had a chance to speak, Garnet motioned both her hands for that needed silence. "Gems, listen. We've only ever drawn a stalemate against Shungite when she was alone. With Apatite's help, she beat us. If Carbon comes to Earth, with or without her army, we are finished."

The point was painfully succinct, and entirely convincing. The panic and disbelief subsided quickly right after that.

With that in mind, Garnet turned back around to look down at Steven, who just looked back in concern.

"Steven, if the reason Shungite's behaviour changed is because White told her the truth about your mother, she might just be ready to listen to what you have to say. If, and only if, you can't convince Carbon to recall her."

He nodded quietly, still not ready to feel optimistic. Rare for him indeed. "I didn't see anything that told me where Shungite might be."

"That's alright, I have an idea on how to find her." Garnet made her smile just a little to try and inspire some confidence in them all again. "Star Sapphire may be able to block future vision, but she can't block past vision, or present vision."

* * *

The dreamscape looked a little different when Steven wasn't already in direct contact with someone's mind. Rather than having some kind of solid surface to stand on, representative of a stable consciousness no doubt, he was simply floating in the ether. Devoid of substance, but not of shape, or tangible presence.

"Long way to Elysium from here."

He closed his eyes and focused on that last image of Carbon. Her bone-like hands in White's. The cold air of the lab. Anything to draw him closer to what she could possibly be experiencing at that moment.

Falling back to the most obvious of methods for gaining attention still came right after. "Carbon! I want to talk with you!"

His voice rang out across the dreamscape, but with nothing to echo off from, it quickly vanished into the emptiness around.

Thankfully it wasn't long before the dreamscape began to shift. Above, dark storm clouds began to roll in, quickly beginning to light up distant peaks and ridges with lighting so far away that he couldn't hear more than a faint rumble well after the fact. When the ground finally formed beneath his feet, it was hard and coarse. What light there was from the occasional nearby flash let him glimpse a plateau of cracked stone or mud, he couldn't tell which.

In one of those flashes, the silhouette of Carbon appeared at last. Even kneeling, she towered over him, much like Shungite herself. Only her hands were fully visible to him, the rest of her shrouded in a darkness that even the lightning couldn't break.

It did however let him glimpse her vague shape. A tall, thin spike rising from her head, broad shoulders despite the frightfully thin nature of her hands. Any other details were lost to her kneeling position.

There was just enough to tell him that some, if not most, or even all of her was disproportionate. It was little wonder that she had such trouble taking form, when the form she finally achieved was in such poor condition. And after what he had seen Amethyst go through, that made him all the more concerned. How desperate had Shungite been to achieve her formation?

"Steven Universe."

Now that she wasn't trapped in agonizing limbo, her voice came out in its true, cold tone. Rather much like Shungite's, though with a little more nuance to it. As if there was more emotion to her words, just subdued. It was chilling to listen to all the same.

Both the unfeeling declaration of his name and what he could glimpse of her form made Steven forget why he had sought her out just briefly.

"Are you okay?"

Carbon hummed quietly. "Concern? Interesting."

Steven tightened his lips, and then his hands into fists. "Shungite forced me into helping you form. I'm angry with her. I don't know what you're like yet, so I'm not going to assume you're just as horrible as she is."

"Putting it tactfully I see." Carbon's hands gradually vanished as she seemingly folded her arms, thus leaving them concealed in the silhouette. "Did you become genuinely concerned by what you saw through my eyes? Is that why you sought me out of your own choice?"

"No, it isn't. I came to ask you to make her leave Earth. And before you ask…"

He watched Carbon tilt her head. There wasn't much else to go on after all. But her continued silence at least meant she was giving him an actual chance to speak.

"I promise to try and heal you in person if you come to Earth. Only after Shungite is gone. And no Carbon Army either. Just you."

"For someone who declares he won't 'assume', you are making a lot of assumptions about my needs. What do you really know about my condition?"

There wasn't any accompanying scoff or laugh to Carbon's declaration. A mere statement pointing out his choice of words, but not actually clarifying if his assumptions were valid or not. She was cunning enough to not only evade answering the deal, but put him on the back foot in the same sentence. Any apology would worsen things for Steven, since Carbon clearly had no interest in getting one.

"I guess you are like Shungite in one way at least. I wasted my time coming here."

"Did you really expect anything different? As she says, we are sisters of a sort."

Just before the dreamscape faded, Carbon abruptly turned her head to her right, as if called to by another. It gave Steven a brief look at the real shape of that spike atop her head, in that it extended from just over her forehead down over towards the back in a solid curved shape.

When he woke, he sat up carefully. There was no nausea or faint pain, just the empty feeling that came with not succeeding.

He definitely wasn't feeling optimistic about convincing Shungite to leave either.

* * *

"Everyone! I've just had a vision!"

Despite knowing what to expect, Peridot lifted her welding mask up anyway to be attentive while Padparadscha made her way over.

Lars and the Rutile Twins also took pause in their conversation about what had occurred earlier to give the same courtesy.

"I predict that the Crystal Gems will require my help for an important task!"

Everyone blinked a couple of times. More so when the barn warp pad activated for the arrival of Garnet, who promptly made her way up the hill.

"I can see Garnet approaching the warp pad to travel here at this very moment."

Lars smiled a little. "That's more like it." He looked over to Garnet when she was close enough to speak with. "Steven doing okay?"

"He's fine." Immediately she tilted her head downward. "Padparadscha, Sapphire would like to fuse with you."

For several seconds, Lars, Peridot and both Rutiles were caught in absolute surprise at the sudden declaration. Padparadscha continued smiling with her hands clasped together.

Garnet tilted her neck about before spreading her arms. "It's all about timing."

Her body lit up in a glow, and shrank down, leaving Sapphire and Ruby standing beside each other by the time Padparadscha clapped her hands to her cheeks and gasped.

"Oh my! I've never been asked to fuse with another Sapphire before! This is wonderful!"

Sapphire nodded to Ruby in that knowing way before releasing her hand, drifting over to Padparadscha silently. "Steven is making contact with Carbon. We need to find out where Shungite is at this moment. The goal is to have her willingly leave Earth for good. Will you help us in this, please?"

In the meantime, Ruby made her way over to where the others were watching from, having come down from the surprise into unspoken questioning.

"I told Sapphire she should try fusing with her alone first. Don't want to overwhelm her, y'know?"

Peridot glanced down at Ruby, taking a moment to adjust her goggles while pondering it. "It's still a little weird. The last time you did something as separate Gems since I arrived was that baseball game." She hummed, then lifted her goggles up off her eyes. "I never thanked either of you for that by the way. So uh, thanks for saving me from the other Rubies, Ruby."

"No worries."

By then, Padparadscha's perception had caught up enough for her to have understood everything Sapphire explained and asked. A small nod and smile followed. "Yes, I will gladly fuse with you to help Steven in his endeavour."

"Thank you." Sapphire lifted both her hands out, waiting until Padparadscha finally took hold of them before continuing. "This won't take long."

Without too much further delay, both glowed as their forms began to meld together. The initial, vague shape looked rather much like a Sapphire that was twice as large, with the gemstones on the front and back of the right palm respectively.

Just before solidifying, the form began to glitch repeatedly, until both Sapphire and Padparadscha were thrown clear to the grass around.

Both were quick to right themselves, even as the others moved in to help. Before anything, Sapphire made a point of moving over to Padparadscha and holding her shoulder supportively.

"I'm sorry. I saw a strong possibility that this would happen, you are not to blame. Please, don't be upset."

She in turn felt Ruby's supportive hand on her own shoulder, prompting her to glance back to her, and then look up to the others. "Despite both being Sapphires in a general sense, and yet having polar opposite abilities, we couldn't stabilize the fusion. There wasn't enough identical harmony that helps form super fusions, or an opposing counterbalance like the one Garnet is based on. We are simply dissimilar."

Peridot folded her arms with a grump. "So, that's it? No Orange-Blue Sapphire?"

"Not a new Sapphire, no."

Sapphire and Ruby moved out from the group for some necessary space, both waiting for Padparadscha to join them a little while later.

"We will make this work. For Steven."

Once ready, the three began to glow and meld together. Before long, the figure they were forming into had reached Garnet's height, and surpassed it, standing about a head taller. Even the body shape looked vaguely similar, if not wider around the hips and shoulders especially.

The trend continued when she solidified at last. Like an altered, tall Garnet. The hair had turned a dark chestnut brown, a more pronounced fringe dangling over the top half of her face. Fingerless gloves that stretched up towards the elbow, a different shade of purple to her outfit, and more notably an additional peach coloured half-coat from the waist down.

A flick of her head failed to keep the fringe clear, prompting the new fusion to reach up and uncover the four eyes she now had.

"Wow, this is, is, is is…" She closed her mouth for a while, thinking hard about what to say. "Weird."

The same seemed to apply to the voice, sounding like Garnet, but higher in pitch, and spoken with a little more of Padparadscha's perpetual excitement.

The Rutile Twins approached at that moment, both reaching out to the new Garnet.

"Are you okay?"

"Is everything well with you?"

"Sure, ain't nothing keeping Malaya d- d- d-" She took another pause. "Down. Hm, guess ol' Sapphy and Paddy are still trying to sync up in there."

Lars took his turn to approach, reaching his hand out and smiling when Malaya looked a little more stable. "Good to meet you, Malaya."

"Likewise. Gotta make the most of being around after all. Like uh, announcing that Steven is coming here! Or uh, Lapis and Gradie are performing theatre on Watermelon Island. And uh… what was the other thing I came into existence for?"

"Tracking down Shungite?"

"Yes, that's it!" Malaya tapped at her chin thoughtfully. "Seeing so many things happening at once is really hard to keep track of, who figured that one huh?"

The warp pad activated again, indicating the arrival of Steven just as predicted. Malaya continued staring upwards a little in deep thought while she searched through all the current happenings within her wide scope of perception.

Seeing yet another fusion did bring the mood back up a little for Steven. Not quite as drastic a change as he had come to expect from most fusions, but he had no complaints.

"Hey there."

"I'll be with you in one moment Steven darling. I'm j-, j-, j-" Yet again she had to pause and let her various components synchronize again. "Malaya's the name, I'm gliding over the southern Africa continent at this very moment."

While she continued with that, Steven made his way over to Lars and the Rutile Twins, both looking relieved. "I'm doing okay now. Carbon didn't want to talk, and I'm still not sure Shungite will either." He sighed with a small frown. "I think Carbon has a mohawk."

Lars looked to both the Rutiles. "Huh, sound familiar at all?" He explained the details of the hairstyle, and its variants, with some hand gestures to further assist. Neither of the Rutiles seemed to recognize it in any way.

"I guess it's not important. There just isn't much else to say about her." Steven clenched his hands, still a little frustrated all the same. "I don't know if it'll go any better with Shungite. What do I do if she decides to attack?"

"I have an idea on that, Steven."

Peridot was returning from the direction of the barn, one of her arm enhancers in hand. She gave it to Lars upon returning to the group.

"I'm sure you've had plenty of time to practise opening those portals to make a quick escape with Steven if necessary. This will give you a little more practical defensive capability in the meantime."

At first, Lars was rather unsettled by just being handed an arm. Once he had a chance to look it over, as well as the digits that Peridot held in her other hand, he began to catch on to what she was at.

"Well, to be honest I haven't actually thought about trying out the portal power yet. Not exactly anywhere to go in empty space is there?"

When the open end of the enhancer expanded, he cautiously set his hand inside, shuddering a little at feeling it filling up, then taking the chance to examine it more when the digits flew into place. It didn't take long to get used to the notion of how it extended the movement of his hand.

"There are many various functions built into this model of enhancer. But we'll focus on the relevant ones, if you'll point it anywhere that isn't a destructible surface."

With more caution, Lars did just that. "So, it shoots lasers or something?"

"A sphere of hypercharged gases, not a line of photons." Since it isn't feasible for hands to form the necessary gesture, it is thought controlled instead. Concentrate on deploying a plasma bolt, then release."

After some hard concentrating, the digits rearranged into the cannon configuration, charging up the bolt until it began to crackle and spark at intended size. Lars chanced a look at it through his squinting eyes before release, sending the bolt flying off into the sky ahead. The bolt itself detonated after some distance. The Rutile Twins jumped a little in surprise, while Malaya yelped from her interrupted state of searching.

Lars brought the digits up to lightly blow over, cracking a smile after. "Can't be a space pirate without some snazzy hand-mounted weapon instead of a hook, am I right?"

Peridot tapped her foot indignantly. "I'd like it back after this is done actually. There are still uses I may have for it in future."

"No problem. I bet Turquenite can rig something up when we can get her group out anyway. Thanks Peridot."

"I found her!"

Malaya clapped rather loudly, grinning wide as she flung her head around to look at the others. "The battlefield, one of the really big islands! You know the one Steven!"

He nodded in response. It seemed unlikely that she had gone there specifically because of the significance it held for both himself and Pearl. But that possibility meant there was a matching chance she would be expecting his arrival.

"She landed pretty near the battlefield when she first came to Earth. Maybe she's waiting for something to arrive there."

It was a concern he opted to put aside, looking up to Lars. "We'd better not try and portal right to the island. It's a long fall down if you miss, not to mention Shungite finding a way to counter it during the conversation would be really bad."

"And that helicopter trick I heard about probably won't work for a human like it does a Gem." Lars looked over the appendage again, flexing the digits a little. "Then again, falling onto a giant strawberry wouldn't be too bad, and the ground probably will just hurt for a while."

Malaya approached at that, still smiling, though with more subtle confidence than Padparadscha trademark glee.

"You'll do fine, Lars. Keep each other safe. We'll be waiting here at the barn, whichever way you come back."

* * *

The music from her flute flowed out across the battlefield far below. It was a very different landscape from the Japanese cliffside. Rather than looking over the progression of human development, all she could see was the remains of Gem warfare. What little hadn't been cleaned away in the time since at least.

Similar circumstances meant she wasn't all that surprised when she heard the approach of another over her music, enough to lower the flute to her lap and open her eyes.

"Let me guess. We need to talk?"

"Are you going to listen?"

Shungite pursed her lips. "It would depend on what you have to say."

She glanced down to her right as Steven sat on the edge of the island beside her. When he didn't make eye contact, not even a slight tilt, she shrugged and returned to looking out over the landscape beyond.

"Carbon told me you spoke with her not too long ago. Are you going to make the same request?"

Steven shuffled uncomfortably. With Shungite, there was far more to be said than with her sister. "Why didn't you just ask for help with Carbon? Is this what all of your horrible experiments were about? Fixing her?"

"Facts, Steven. Asking you was never an option because your co-operation was not a reliable fact."

Her fingers tightened around the flute slightly. "White Diamond has laid her pursuits in the realm of science. The acquisition of indisputable facts. Through experimentation these facts are obtained. Making a request of a supposed former renegade turned hybrid stretches so far out of the realm of facts into guessing that it was simply an unacceptable path to take."

"Supposed?"

A sigh followed from that, her fingers tightening a little more while she tried not to look at Steven. "My Diamond knew your real identity all along. She chose not to share that information, even after I had reached that conclusion through logical deduction. And only after you broke free of my devices, seeing as ordinary Gems should not have been able to do so." She slowly released her hard grip on the flute. "The only change it brought about was the realization of the full scope of your healing ability. There was still not enough factual justification to try asking."

None of it sounded good to Steven. For all her talk of obtaining facts, the only fact he could think of in that moment was that she had been torturing Jasper in some way. It clearly wasn't for information, and he still couldn't see what possible bearing it had on fixing Carbon. He didn't want to risk bringing that point up regardless.

"So that's it? All this time we might have been able to help her with a peaceful agreement, but you didn't bother because you weren't absolutely certain I'd say yes?" He looked right at her, almost ready to stand up in frustration. "I thought experiments involved trial and error! You know, learning from mistakes!"

Shungite was unfazed. "You are missing the point in that I am only interested in experiments I know I can conduct as I intend. If I explained the conditions needed for the experiment as a consequence of asking permission, there was every chance you would avoid those conditions for any number of reasons, presumably spite. That would render it impossible to perform."

In a surprising move, she looked right down at him following that. "I cannot control your actions, Steven. Your gemstone merely reacted to the initiation of harmonic resonance, and maintained it as long as I did. An opportunity presented itself, and I took it, without malice or concern."

Steven just sighed. Her rationalization was so heavily set in. Any argument he tried to make would just hit another wall of her conclusions and assertions. He needed a new angle entirely to work from, or he was better off walking away and waiting for the next inevitable crisis resulting from her machinations. Something less confrontational, and more personal.

"Did you get the result you wanted?"

Shungite went visibly tense, unusual but not unheard of for a Gem, especially for one so difficult to faze. When it became clear it hadn't gone unnoticed, she took it in stride.

"No, I didn't."

Steven took a deep breath. That was the once chance he had to try and begin turning it all around. There was clearly no chance at convincing her to leave, but it now felt like a new option had been presented at last.

"Shungite, we're going to keep fighting you if the horrible experiments continue. But that's the only reason why. We don't hate you, we're just scared and upset."

Shungite turned her eyes downward towards Steven once more, that cold look returning in full "Sardonyx attacked me first, after I politely asked about the nature of her fusion. You all came to drive me away; I wasn't welcome to begin with. And it's easy to want to make peace after losing again and again."

"But is fighting us worth leaving Carbon the way she is?"

For once, there was enough expression on her face to make clear he had clinched just enough of the argument to make her think.

Actual, deep consideration. Weighing up her options, the plans ahead, what White Diamond wanted. What she herself wanted.

She looked over her shoulder towards Lars, who had been waiting there the whole time in silence quite patiently, but also non threateningly. And then back down to Steven again, who looked determined, and nothing more.

"White Diamond wants results. She has thousands of Gems analyzing both the results and the reports I give her, in addition to her own examination. It's not a simple matter of faking the experiments."

"Then don't do the experiments in a cruel way. Find alternatives, actually try and discuss it with us. I'm not asking you to turn against White Diamond and Homeworld. Just stop hurting other Gems, please."

There was another long pause while Shungite thought it over. Considering those possible alternatives, discarding many, holding onto a few for further research.

"There's no guarantee you can bring Carbon to the desired result."

A shrug was all Steven needed. "You're right. The best I can guarantee is that I'll try. And that's all I'm asking in return. Try to do things better, without hurting others."

Following some further thought, Shungite let out a soft sigh. "I will consider it, Steven."

"Thank you."

He got up quickly, though made no obvious rush to depart. There was a bit of concern when she lifted the flute up again, which remained even after the harmless music began to play once more.

Once out of earshot, he took his turn to sigh. "Even if you didn't need to do anything, I appreciate you being there, Lars."

"Eh, don't worry about it. Don't wanna jinx things going this well. Hopefully, right?"

They had reached the end of the island by then, leaving the jump to the stepping point between them and relative safety. "Yeah. Hopefully."

* * *

"Night Moonstone."

Moonstone smiled warmly from across the room, the sparkling blue veil across her form glittering a little in what light there was. "Goodnight Steven. Pearl and Gradie will see you tomorrow."

He nodded on his way up to bed, half watching while Moonstone made her way back to the Temple as he got settled in. When the door had closed behind her, he closed his eyes at last.

It wasn't long before he found himself in the dreamscape. And shortly after that, the realization that he was far more lucid than he otherwise should be. Even after weeks without a single word from her, he recognized the mental presence of Shungite.

"This better not lead to something bad."

Before long he found Shungite, though the only thing he felt at that moment was utter confusion, if not a little distrust.

She was back down to a typical size, situated at the same piano she had forced him to play. Her outfit had changed altogether however, a glittering black dress that left quite a bit of her back exposed. Drawing a little closer, he could see more oddities about her, eyelashes that hadn't been present before, painted nails with the same sparkle as her dress. Even her currently closed eyes had apparently been done up with no small amount of makeup.

The song she was playing resembled the music she had played with her flute those weeks previous, though there was something more to it beyond the fact it was played on the piano instead. Something pushing it towards a more grand piece over the melody it started as.

"If I told you a story, would you believe, that it's true?"

Steven took a few moments to realize that Shungite was singing the words, instead of just asking the question in an uncharacteristic way. It definitely had the weirdness of a dream for once.

"Why a song? I know the Crystal Gems sing about our feelings a lot but-"

Shungite seemingly ignored him, continuing with both the music and the song. "You may doubt, you may laugh, whatever the case this song is for two."

"Shungite, if you aren't making these lyrics up on the spot-"

Her eyes opened at last, sparkling in four pointed stars while her fingers danced across the piano keys. "Take the time, pull up a seat. Before long, you'll be swept off your feet."

Grumbling all the while, Steven looked around for that seat, and found just as much emptiness as there had been a few moments ago.

"When it's all over I'll let you decide. At the very least I'll know, I tried."

"I can't decide if you don't tell me anything, Shungite."

The music began to pick up at that moment, though the lack of reaction from Shungite made it unclear whether it was because of his protest, or her own decision. Before long, more instruments began to sound in, accompanying her performance.

"Steven, of the Crystal Gems. Once a leader, twice a rebel, now little more than a pebble."

"Now wait a minute-"

"Alone and confused, together and always fused, a Ruby and Sapphire with too much muse."

"That doesn't even rhyme properly!"

"Overcooked and underdone, too little time in the sun, but then am I really talking about our Amethyst in sum?"

When Steven went to hang his head in disappointment at the song he was being subject to, he instead caught sight of various figures in the distance surrounding them. Barely visible against the void around, but drawing closer by the moment. The extra music seemed to be coming from a number of them.

"Let's not forget our rebel hopeful. Arrogant and loud, a Peridot that is always a mouthful."

"That's not how I'd describe Peridot at all."

"Then there's Pearl, angry and bitter. So many salty tears, and not enough tissues. Or the water witch of old, a Sodalite with identity issues. And yet she completes a pair, an ocean Gem like no other. One of two, where two are one. She and Gradie are like you and I. We are all two of a kind."

Steven watched her push the piano away in what seemed like a graceful manner at first, until he realized the way it slid away was all wrong. That was further compounded after she stood up, splaying her arms to either side as she stepped away from the seat, backing up towards some of the approaching silhouettes.

"You and I, not of silicon but of carbon. Misfits, outcasts, outside the bounds of Homeworld. You and I, we're two of a kind!"

At the same time she flaired her hands in a dramatic manner, stage lights lit up all around them, illuminating the silhouettes at last to reveal various Gems positioned all across stage pieces. The piano itself was resting on a wheeled trolley still being dragged away by a very short Gem with black curly hair.

For all the potential that the dreamscape offered, Shungite had gone to the extra effort to dress the whole thing up as a musical stage performance in the most literal sense.

"Are you kidding me? What's this about Shungite!?"

As always, Shungite made no direct response. She spun around at last, making her dress dazzle in the bright light as she skipped up onto one of the stages and began to move amongst the other Gems, touching the head of each as she named them in turn. The music was louder than ever by that moment.

"Coals are for hauling, Shales for restoring! Graphites weave the sword with grace, Hematites fly better than the best ace!"

"Hematites aren't even carbon-based!"

Shungite finally broke from her state of ignoring him, trailing between the various Gems of the Carbon Army while casting a direct glance. "When the theme is black and white, sometimes we must stretch the definition, even if it isn't quite right."

She moved further up the stage piece amongst the other Gems, climbing towards the peak where a silhouette that vaguely resembled Carbon waited. "Augites are special, always ready to defend, especially when trouble is about to brew. Perhaps you haven't heard, but we've even added some Black Pearls, just a few."

By then, Steven was left rather isolated, though under those circumstances he was grateful for the space. Things were getting uncomfortable in how grounded the weirdness remained, it was all far too deliberate, too planned out. And there was no sign that Shungite would stop any time soon.

"Why are you singing about the Carbon Army? Just tell me what you want!"

Shungite paused her singing tone for a brief glare at that point. "I'm getting to that Steven, don't interrupt my performance." When she resumed, she had nearly reached the top of the stairs, draping her arms around the cutout shape of Carbon. "Leaders need enforcers, and that's where I come in, always ready to serve her elegance."

Her hand stroked along the cutout in ways that were intended to make Steven uncomfortable, and she could see it was doing that quite effectively.

"Yellow vainly sought for her Cluster, a harmony of so many Gems in total dissonance. Blue is so petty, withdrawn, and eternally filled with reluctance. And Pink as we now know favours the art of disappearance."

She practically snaked around until she was standing behind the cutout, hands trawling around the neck while she peered down from over Carbon's shoulder. "But that's why White is perfection, the pinnacle of our society, almost always worth our allegiance. She and I, I and her, we are the Carbon Army at its finest! We are two of a kind, yes just like you and I, the counterpoint is absolute brilliance!"

All of the lights went out save for the one keeping Steven illuminated. After a few moments, a new spotlight came on, lighting up Shungite at the top of the stairs as she slowly descended. The cutout as well as all the other Gems had vanished by then.

"I'm a chip off the shoulder, a Gem who's so much bolder. I know my way around each test, because quite simply I am the best."

She reached the end of the stairs, making a very slow approach towards Steven, virtually transfixed by then as he had given up on making any sense of the song a while back.

"So please Steven, will you consider? Oh Steven will you consider? Oh Steven oh Steven oh Steven!"

At the last few steps she flaired her arms again, then moved into a deep bow with one hand extended towards him. Her eyes gazed down across her beckoning palm, the fingers curled just a little in readiness to take hold.

"Will you do the honour, and fuse with me?"

Steven stared back at her in stunned silence for a long while. Just long enough for the silence to become noticeable. Only to back away with a sound of disgust.

"No! Are you kidding me? You don't sing one terribly written song and suddenly get forgiven for all the horrible things you did to us! And fusion is about as far from that as it gets! It's all about trust, and you need to earn trust! You've said and done nothing this whole time! I'd never fuse with any Gem under these circumstances!"

In that moment, he didn't care how mean his remarks came across as. There was simply no doubt in his mind that he was entirely right to be upset, especially if the whole thing was intended as some lame excuse to trick him into yet another experiment.

Shungite curled her fingers into her palm, smirked at him, then shrugged.

"Your loss."

* * *

Steven sat up with an abrupt yelp, only to fall back against the pillow a little while later. No-one was in the house itself to come to his aid, and for once he was grateful of that.

"Why are you like this, Shungite? What did White do to you?"

He tried closing his eyes several times before sleep finally came to him. Thankfully without any weird dreams that he'd have a hard time forgetting, despite how much he wanted to.

* * *

At the cliff face, Shungite played her flute into the howling wind, staring out across the night ocean, and the clouds looming overhead. Standing defiant to nature's attempt to blow her back, to end the summons before her target arrived.

The sound of rushing water indicated that nature had failed.

From the ocean emerged a giant head of matted blue hair, riddled with kelp and barnacles alike. Through the ribbons of hair stared out the glimpse of two vacuous eyes, empty voids from which sea water seemed to flow endlessly. The same was true of the vicious maw as it parted enough to hiss spray in Shungite's direction.

"The time has arrived. Follow my instructions as dictated, and you will be freed of this form. I will contact Homeworld to arrange your pickup and safe return when you are healed. Understood?"

The corrupt Lapis Lazuli hissed at her again, before promptly diving back into the ocean over herself, the long form of her twisted body splashing everywhere as she swam back down to the depths, beginning the approach towards her point of attack.

The star closed in around her serpentine form as it gradually vanished into the horizon, then closed on itself altogether.


	15. Lapis 3: 10 Reasons Why Water Is Bad

"What would happen if we fused?"

The question made Steven blink in surprise several times before he finally looked over at Gradie. "Uh, what do you mean exactly?"

Gradie had been staring ahead at the kitchen, but opted to look back at him for a proper answer. In a sense. "Y'know? What we'd look like, what we'd sound like. I mean I guess we're always gonna end up being somewhere in between a guy and a girl like Stevonnie and Smoky Quartz. I don't really know what to think of being someone like that myself yet, but you do, so, yeah?"

Steven blinked again, scratching his head with a touch of discomfort. "Fusions aren't exactly something you can predict. I guess we'd probably be more like Stevonnie, but purple. And with shorter hair." He couldn't help but frown slightly in concern. "Did you want to try fusing with me sometime?"

The tinge that appeared on her cheeks was unmistakable, though she wasn't rushing to find an excuse, or even looking away awkwardly. A long way from how she had once been on the subject, and how she certainly would have previously reacted to such a question.

"I'm not sure. Forming Moonstone is different, because I kinda knew what to expect, and now I know I'm comfortable enough with Pearl to hold that form." She broke eye contact at last, glancing downward before finally laughing at her own embarrassed nature. "I know this'll sound weird coming from me, but, some real small part of me thinks we'd be a good fusion, over any of the others I could fuse with."

When she noticed Steven's reaction the blush quickly returned, that time out of more overt embarrassment. "I mean-" She grunted in frustration at herself. "I didn't mean as a permafusion, or in that way you fuse with Connie." Her hands went to her face after another grunt. "Now I've gone and made it all weird, as usual."

After a bit, Steven just smiled and reached his hand out to hold her arm lightly. "It's okay, you're just curious." He took his turn to sigh, and open up about his own state of mind. "I just keep worrying about Shungite again. If I'm distracted, it's not because of you at all Gradie. You don't have to worry about offending me."

"I know, I know." She got up to her feet to pace around the coffee table, running a hand through her hair to try and calm herself. "Now that there's more fusing going on since Moonstone came back, I guess I'm just thinking about it more and more. Especially about trying new fusions. I mean obviously Amethyst is busy being Opal so I can't ask her right now. And I'm still kinda iffy on being part of a trio of Gems so Garnet is a long way off…"

"And Lapis?"

Gradie stopped in her pacing to look right at Steven, a little surprised, and a little uncertain. "Well, I don't think we'd make anything all that fancy and new, since we're both Lapis Lazulis. And I think like she's still feeling bad about Malachite. Like I do with Amazonite, and Peridot. So, back to you and Amethyst." She finally managed to form a bit of a smile. "The trio of misfits, only I wouldn't feel comfortable being part of that trio. Typical huh?"

She sighed before returning to her pacing, though that time it was with a more uplifted mood at last. "I guess the point is that I'm open to trying it, Steven. Whenever you are. I really suck at asking, but if I put it out there it's easier for everyone. So, yeah."

"I get it. Maybe we can train with Pearl as our fusion. Sword and shield works for Stevonnie, should be the same for us, right?"

"Yeah, I think that'd work great. Though would that mean my sword gets little roses instead of stars, or your shield turns blue, or- Where's the ocean?"

It took about as much time for Steven to catch that last part as it did for Gradie to move across to the window and confirm that worry. He visibly winced when he finally reached her side, seeing the exact same thing in the evening light.

"Shungite. It has to be."

"She must've called in another Lapis Lazuli. Pretty sure someone would've noticed another corrupt Lapis in a few thousand years, and the others already caught the one from that historical play you mentioned."

"Guess it'd make sense for a sea monster to be a Lapis Lazuli." After looking over the desolate, extended beachfront, Steven tightened his fists and looked back to Gradie. "Go get the other Gems. I'll call Connie and make sure everyone in town is safe, we'll meet back on the boardwalk and plan there, okay?"

"Got it. And take care Steven. Shungite could be anywhere while we're busy with this."

Steven just nodded on his way out, having come to the same conclusion well before then. But while none of the townsfolk stood a chance against Shungite, they could at least warn the other Gems of whatever happened, if it happened.

* * *

Just a couple minutes later, half the town had gathered around Mayor Dewey on one side of the pier. On the other side, all the Crystal Gems were just arriving, Peridot floating in on a metal plate while the others either flew or leapt down.

"Great, now we're just waiting for Connie."

Rather conveniently, one of Lion's portals opened up nearby, Connie riding in with him shortly after. She quickly dismounted to join the gathering circle, Rose's sword slung across her back.

"My parents looked up reports before I got here. There's a big ring where the ocean has vanished, but in the middle there's a supposedly untouched area of water. Maybe a few dozen kilometres across. But it hasn't risen above sea level. And it's centred on the galaxy warp."

That sent confused looks around all the others, which all eventually led back to Lapis. She reached for her chin in deep thought, running through distant memories of the early days. "I have no idea why they didn't send another big robonoid if they wanted to fix the galaxy warp again. There's nothing a Lapis Lazuli can do to fix things. And no reason to guard it like that otherwise."

Garnet nodded stoically as she moved to take charge of the discussion. "Then the warp pad is off limits. We'll have to get there on foot. Whatever trap we're being lured into this time, we'll have to face in stride."

She looked up to Opal, still going stable despite the tension of the situation. "We need to form Alexandrite to cover the distance. I know we can hold together long enough thanks to Moonstone's inspiration." After the nod in response, she looked back down to Steven and Connie. "I recommend you form Stevonnie, and come with us on Lion. We go there together, but if things turn bad he can get you back here faster than anything."

That left Lapis, Gradie and Peridot, whom she only turned to after making a cautious glance over at the townsfolk. "You three should stay here to begin with. You're the only ones who can stop the town from flooding, or reach us in time if Shungite tries to go for the Temple. If we need you out there, Stevonnie will come for you."

They all looked to each other with a bit of apprehension, but none opted to speak up against the plan that left them on the sidelines. Only one of them was actually capable of fighting on even terms with a fresh Homeworld Gem after all.

"Alright. Positions Gems."

Steven and Connie moved for a bit of space to do their fusion, while Garnet and Opal both leapt over to the dry beachfront.

It took a few moments for Opal to settle on which pair of arms to work with, seeing as it was the first time she had fused with another in that state. "Think we can make this work as we are?"

"Different rhythm, same result. I'll follow you lead Opal."

She nodded, then began working around the vast height difference into a semblance between the dance styles of Amethyst and Pearl. Before long, the two fusions started to meld into each other, growing much further in size until Alexandrite returned to form once again.

Stevonnie had also come back into existence by then, having quickly hopped up on Lion's back after replacing the sword over their back. With a nod to Alexandrite and the two Lazulis, they moved down to the beach atop Lion's effortless leap.

"I think I'm ready. You?"

Alexandrite just nodded in her stoic way, then formed a slight smirk. "Yeah."

Both began sprinting down the ocean floor slope, headed right in the direction of the galaxy warp. Before long, they were little more than a few coloured shapes in the distance, fading from view altogether.

Gradie folded her arms, both sets of fingers lightly drumming in slight contempt.

"When the questions start rolling in, you handle it Lapis. If I have to hear Ronaldo one more time, I might just say something very, very unkind."

* * *

It wasn't too long before the pair of fusions reached the threshold of the stolen ocean, a towering wall of water rushing upward, the very top rimmed with white foam from where the perpetual gravity-defying wave reached its peak.

Stevonnie, being the more verbally articulate of the two, took a long look at the display before reaching a conclusion. "Lion can probably climb this, seeing as he can walk on water, what about you?"

Lion lifted his head at the wall of water, blankly staring at it before ruffling his mane.

Alexandrite in the meantime had approached the wall of water, cautiously resting a hand on the flowing surface for a couple of seconds before drawing away.

"It's condensed. Enough to stand on."

"What about getting up on top?"

After a bit of thought, Alexandrite clasped all her hands together in respective pairs, blowing into each with her more humanoid mouth. Ice formed across all of her fingers, and her toes leaving her with four pairs of icy climbing claws when done. Courtesy of Sapphire.

"Let's go."

She began the climb immediately, making quick work with so many limbs in ideal co-ordination, making the ascent up the gelid wall.

Stevonnie wasn't far behind, Lion taking a little longer to get going with his leaps up the wall, but soon making good progress upwards while Stevonnie held on firmly.

At the lip of the ocean, both made the final leap at the same time, coming to land on the turbulent surface. The drastic change of the ocean's state had brought on significant wind flows from the air around them, drawing in more and more clouds by the moment. It was an ecological disaster in the making.

"So, to the galaxy warp from here?"

Alexandrite didn't respond at first. Despite all the turbulence above and below, she could practically feel the greater danger ebbing from ahead of them. There was a subdued chaos to the state of the ocean. Given Homeworld's obsession with precision and order, new doubts were beginning to surface about their enemy.

"Stay close."

They both set out across the water surface, remaining wary of both the constant waves and the howling wind that grew stronger still as they moved inward. It would take some time before the galaxy warp even came into view.

The rate at which the swell of the sea continued left Stevonnie feeling nauseous. Reaching the galaxy without portals seemed more and more unlikely. And unfusing on such unstable conditions would not do well for either of them at all.

"Urgh. Alexandrite, I think we-"

Out of nowhere, a giant lashing tendril shot out from beneath the ocean surface, nearly throwing Stevonnie off Lion as he growled and wailed in a desperate attempt to remain steady despite being hurled back.

The tendril itself struck right for Alexandrite, blocked only by very quick reflexes drawing out Garnet's gauntlets to block the attack.

Before long a second tendril lashed out, then a third, and a fourth. The first recoiled from its deflection to join them, forming a defensive posture around a fierce whirlpool that began to form.

By then Lion had recovered enough for Stevonnie to get a look at the situation, not even glancing up to Alexandrite as the horrifying realization struck them both.

From the whirlpool emerged a looming head of dark blue hair, kelp, barnacles and other such marine life strewn through it. The four tendrils were soon revealed to be only part of the number that extended from that hair that soon gave way to veiled eyes that poured water incessantly.

As soon as the mouth rose above the water level, the corrupt Lapis Lazuli sprayed out more water in her deafening screech. Many of her hair tendrils began to advance on both Alexandrite and Stevonnie for attack.

With the tendrils fast approaching, they drew out the sword with both hands, hugging tight to Lion with their legs. "Alright. Just find the brightly glowing weak spots. Easy."

There was anything but confidence behind those words, but panicking was far worse than any other alternative.

The strike didn't come however, those tendrils swaying well out of the way as the corrupt Lapis was smashed in the face by Sugilite's flail. That was in turn followed by a fierce charge as Alexandrite closed in for a hard grapple. The resulting spray of biting seawater was met by a fierce gout of fire, causing steam to billow out between the two giants as they struggled in both the physical and the elemental.

Lion was quick to act on that opening, bounding across the thrashing water towards the corrupt Lapis, while Stevonnie continually scanned what there was of her form to see, trying to spot out any potential weakness to exploit.

That too was cut short as Alexandrite was promptly hurled out of the grapple by two enormous water arms that formed from the ocean, forcing Lion to retreat back to safety.

As soon as she recovered, Alexandrite was moving to stand back up, summoning Opal's bow while only briefly glancing down at Stevonnie. "Go! Get them! Go now!"

Amidst all the chaos, there seemed little option but to follow her instruction. Once clear of the immediate area, the sound of Opal's arrows splintering across the corrupt Lapis' form, Stevonnie sheathed the sword and braced for the portal jump.

"Make sure you can get us back here, okay Lion?"

Lion mrowled, then roared to open a portal right back to Beach City, leaping through to safety from the smashing waves.

* * *

"For the last time I am not a force of nature Ronaldo! Ugh!"

The escalation from frustration to 'something unkind' on Gradie's part was cut short by Peedee dragging Ronaldo away for his own safety. Despite the protests.

Peridot folded her arms afterward, though left enough room to lightly nudge Gradie's hip to get her attention. "You're absolutely sure you still want to keep living at the lighthouse?"

In a long sigh, Gradie let out that building frustration at Ronaldo as best she could, though the resentment remained. "I can't move into the Temple, and I really don't think moving into the barn with you two is a good idea. And the moon is a little too isolated for my tastes, so-"

Rather unsurprisingly, she was yet again cut off mid sentence, that time by the abrupt arrival of Lion and Stevonnie. Both were drenched in seawater and foam, looking particularly frightened.

"We need you out there! It's a corrupt Lapis Lazuli!"

The flurry of expressions between them all boiled down to determination from the trio, Lapis taking the lead.

"We'll come in swinging for a fight. Keep her busy."

"Uh, Lapis?" Peridot made another nudge in the opposite direction that time. "You sure you can fly over that quickly? I've been working on my aerodynamic technique after all."

Lapis exchanged another glance with Gradie before looking back to Stevonnie. "I promise we won't be long. Try and make an opening, so we can end this quickly."

Stevonnie nodded, then motioned with their legs for Lion to make the return trip. "Alright. We'll try."

It was long after that they arrived back at the scene of battle. Things had gotten considerably worse in that time.

The corrupt Lapis Lazuli was lashing wave after wave of watery nets at Alexandrite. Primarily they deflected swings of Sardonyx's hammer, as the plumes of fiery breath kept them from actually entangling the giant fusion. A stalemate that only one of them could keep up indefinitely.

"Lion, can you get me up there?"

After a gruff, he roared open a new portal, bounding towards it across the rolling waves again. Stevonnie readied their sword in preparation for a swing, not knowing where exactly they'd come out at.

Re-emerging put them right below one of the lashing tendrils of her hair. There was just enough time for an overhead swing, slicing clean into the mess before inevitably sailing down to the other side.

By the time they had turned around, it had already started to grow back. Though notably, it was stark blue in colour now that all the seaweed and other debris had been freed from the mess. Aclear line between the two marking their cut.

"Oh come on! She's a giant water monster, and she can regenerate!?"

Alexandrite nodded while bringing back Garnet's gauntlets for another charge in. "Shungite enhanced her. Eyes out."

The pair of Crystal Gems readied themselves for the next phase of attack, while the corrupt Lapis hissed threateningly again. Shungite was a giant Gem that could recover faster when small, but that Lapis was already way overextended. They just had to drain her strength enough, though that was a challenge all on its own.

Leading to the rather convenient timing as Lapis and Gradie made their entrance.

The impact sent out a flash of blue light, the corrupt Lapis Lazuli sprawling back through the water with a lot of flailing of her serpentine form. The whirlpool that had been surrounding her collapsed in on itself, though was bound to reappear once she recovered.

Both Stevonnie and Alexandrite had covered their eyes as a reflex from the blast of light. Though once they lowered their hands they both had a clear view of the latest towering fusion to grace the seas.

"Lapis? Gradie?"

Standing nearly as tall as Alexandrite, the fusion of the two looked so very similar to both her components. Lapis' windswept hair now bore Gradie's headband, with bangs now covering her forehead. The halter and long sleeved dress had hybridized, her back bare to leave Lapis' Gem in the open while those expansive sleeves draped just up to the elbows, her midriff left bare. The two layers of her skirt had also taken to a new pattern, while Gradie's sandals had actually lost the shin wraps as a compromise with being barefoot in her other half. The wings were the strangest case though, less gelid and more of Gradie's icy feathers suspended by Lapis' shapeless water, a more clear cut union than a melding.

"Feeling like Lazurite, actually."

The corrupt Lapis had started to rise up by then, prompting the Gems into action.

"You can't hold that size, Lazurite."

"We'll make this quick. Stevonnie, how about the cover picture for Water Witch 2?"

Her right hand went up to Gradie's gemstone, drawing out her sword in just the one hand that time. Her left reached out to conjure up the ocean water into several tendrils of her own, extensions from her hand to take the place of further shapeshifting strain.

Stevonnie was awestruck for most of that moment, and then distracted by the corrupt Lapis beginning her advance once more. "Great, I'll keep it in mind for later."

After a glance between the two others, Lazurite led the attack. Her wings outstretched, then propelled her forward across the ocean, skating along the rough surface flawlessly. Landing the first strike as the hair tendrils lashed up in defense

Like Stevonnie's slash, the corrupt Lapis' hair was soon being regrown in its original state. More and more of the seaweed and other mush falling to the ocean with every one of Lazurite's swings. Her regeneration strength had to give out soon at that rate. Lazurite herself was wholly intent on seeing it through, regardless of the potential damage to both her gemstones.

"Come on! You can't keep this up-"

The latest attack from the corrupt Lapis sent both large fusions back a fair bit, leaving the corrupt Lapis with enough room to form icy spears on the tips of her hair, and launch them directly at all the visible gemstones in range.

On reflex, Lazurite summoned up an enormous ice wall to protect herself and Alexandrite, though it didn't last long as the shocking realization hit home.

"No, no she's…"

The sea went quiet as the corrupt Lapis Lazuli dived back into her whirlpool. In her wake, the dread of anticipation had taken hold.

It was the first time Stevonnie was able to come out of hiding behind Steven's shield, summing up the more relevant situation aptly.

"Phase two is gonna be bad! It always is!"

The very surface of the ocean erupted in a manner akin to a volcano. Lazurite was the only one not completely thrown off balance, left to cower as Star Lapis Lazuli unveiled herself fully.

Having moved to waist height, her tendril hair had lifted high into the air around her head as it had typically done. No longer draped around her head thick enough to cover her gemstone, or the unmistakable design of her folded robe attire. Even the diamond-shaped ring on her stomach binding the lot remained, albeit entirely covered in barnacles.

She looked far too much like she had before corruption. Only the mirrored eyes and vicious maw that continued to seep endless water had really changed. That and her size. None of them could really tell if it was more help from Shungite, or if she was indeed so strong that she had been resisting the corruption from the beginning. Retaining some small part of her identity.

Her chilling oceanic roar was cut short by Lazurite leaping to the air and crashing water hands over her in eight directions at once. Two on each side she formed into shaky restraints as she came back to land, going for a finishing blow to her exposed neck.

It was then that Star Lapis Lazuli chose to strike with restraints of her own. Her arms smashed free of the bindings on her shoulders as two of her own liquid chains lashed onto Lazurite's ankles. Within a few seconds, she dragged the fusion down below the surface, roaring another torrent of ocean spray at their wake.

Alexandrite returned to the fight with newfound fury. Pearl's unwavering loyalty to protecting Gradie, Garnet's utter disgust with the abhorrent behaviour of Homeworld, and Amethyst's long-worn anger to the mere notion of toxic oppression.

Lion was still trying to recover from the first eruption, Stevonnie barely clinging on to one leg while their legs dangled dangerously well into the ocean, fearful of sharing Lazurite's current fate.

Eventually, they let go, forming Steven's bubble in the process to maintain what air they could while under the surface.

"We're coming Lazurite! We're not giving up on you!"

By then, the fusion had been dragged down so far that what moonlight there was on the ocean above was only barely filtering down. More watery restraints had appeared on her wrists as well, pulling her hands behind her back to keep her completely helpless. All she could do was look around frantically, terrified of what was to follow.

"She knows this feeling well, Gradie. She's inflicted it on others before.

"She knows this feeling well, Lapis Lazuli. It is where she belongs."

From the right emerged a spectre of Malachite, her wicked grin piercing through the ocean haze as she grabbed onto the respective arm.

"Take control Lapis! Put her in her place! That's how you break free!"

From the left emerged Azurite. The long denounced fusion of Gradie and Star Lapis, her cold expression that barely strayed from the latter's made worse by the lack of the headband. That had always been the collar worn over Gradie's gemstone, perfectly encapsulating the control she wielded in her twisted view.

"Surrender control Gradient. You have no status, no voice. You are below her. You will obey her every wish. It is all you are good for."

The two monstrous fusions began to swirl around Lazurite, chanting their biting words to the two halves within. Not seeking to break apart their fusion, but to twist it into something even worse than themselves.

"Take control!"

"Surrender control."

Lazurite tried to clutch at her head, to make the twisted, conflicting flashes of memory go away. Where there was Jasper, there was now Gradie. Where there was a Star gemstone, there was just the default gemstone.

"She's there to take you anger out on!"

"No-one will listen. Do not speak up."

Both Gems inside summoned up all their strength together. Trying to break just one of the restraints. Reminding themselves of the simple facts to try and stay focused. Star Lapis Lazuli was still corrupt, not fully herself. Jasper had been bubbled away long ago.

"Make her beg for it! Put Star Lapis in her place, take Gradie's power for yourself!"

"You have no free will. Your feelings do not matter. You will serve your betters without question."

Lazurite's face started to contort. Phasing between Lapis and Gradie, minor as the differences were, in a way that still made it all too clear just how strained they were. The strain from the prolonged size change was making it much harder to fight back against Star Lapis Lazuli's mental onslaught.

"I… won't… become you!"

Back on the surface, the struggle between Star Lapis Lazuli herself and Alexandrite was drawing to a peak. The exchange of fire and water was gradually leaning in favour of the latter. For all of their strengths and unity, the four Gems still weren't truly united into one singular being. Just enough of a weakness that Star Lapis was able to exploit in the physical attacks.

In the midst of it, Stevonnie eventually resurfaced just as the bubble disintegrated, finally having a chance to clamber back onto Lion.

"I can't find her!"

Alexandrite couldn't even respond, nearly starting to bend backwards from the sheer force being pushed on her. At that point it was unlikely having Peridot around would really help matters at all simply due to the scale of it all.

Almost as abruptly as Star Lapis herself had resurfaced, Lazurite crashed back through to the open air with a wide upward sweep of her sword, slicing through the arms of the corrupt Gem. As expected they quickly started to reform, but it was enough to get Alexandrite clear of the fight.

That time the sword remained on its own, every sweeping blow from Lazurite driving Star Lapis back a little more. There was newfound determination, as well as desperation, as she tried to ignore the first signs of cracking on both her gemstones.

"I'm done being angry with myself!"

She sliced through several tendrils of hair.

"I'm done being angry with Jasper, and with you!"

She sliced through the icy growths on her hands.

"I'm putting you away where I never have to think about you, ever again!"

Her left hand grabbed Star Lapis' robes, the right drawing the sword back. With one fierce glare into her eyes, she plunged the blade home, sticking it right through the middle of her constructed form.

It should have been a finishing blow, something both Pearl and Steven recognized all too well in their respective fusions.

The eventual awareness of the faint music behind Star Lapis Lazuli finally indicated the lack of poofing. Why Lazurite was still left standing there, glaring at the grin that had started to form on the corrupt Gem's lips.

Standing on her hovering platform, Shungite was playing her song of stability, holding Star Lapis to her form. Even after she lowered the flute away, its effects persisted on.

"I am taking notes, Star Lapis Lazuli. You may begin."

Star Lapis whipped her hands up to grab Lazurite's head as she tilted herself upward, the sheen on her eyes vanishing altogether at last. Ice formed between her fingertips and the fusion's surface, as well as around the blade plunged through her body and the hand holding it. Binding all three Lapis Lazulis together.

The attempt to intervene by both Alexandrite and Stevonnie was stopped by the harming song played by Shungite, having attuned it since to be far more discerning. She had no intention of interrupting the abhorrent fusion about to take place.

It wasn't long after that Star Lapis Lazuli's gemstone began to glow, her wicked grin looming over Lazurite while the tendrils entwined as well.

"The Diamonds set me free of inhibition! Of restraint! Malachite let me glimpse the thrills to be had! Oh I'm going to make sure you both know how much I appreciate this opportunity!"

The strain had weakened the two Lapis Lazulis so much that neither could break free of the still spreading ice. Soon enough, their gemstones were starting to glow as well, forced into the state approaching fusion by the overwhelming energy of their captor. And even if they were somehow freed later, there was no telling what kind of damage Star Lapis' lingering corruption would do to them.

There was no winning in that situation, and only one of them came to realize it.

"I'm sorry, sis. I'm not putting you through this again."

Both forms turned to pure light at that moment, the three Gems starting to intermingle into one. It soon became two, as Lapis was thrown clear from the mix, leaving Gradie's form to slowly merge into Star Lapis', the gemstone turning on her neck.

The moment seemed to last forever, helplessly drifting back, reaching out in a last ditch effort to stop Gradie from making that choice.

Shungite smiled all the while, less at the utterly perverse nature of it all, and more at the extent to which a Crystal Gem's will had been broken. To see what it took to finally make one of them give up.

That smile vanished as she saw a limb form from the new Azurite's back, holding out a large sword.

At just the right moment, Gradie used her last bit of self-control to slice downward. The blade sang through the still fluctuating form, slicing off the left curve of her own gemstone, missing Star Lapis' gemstone altogether.

It still did the trick, the whole shape of Azurite completely vaporizing in a massive cloud of blue dust. Both the gemstones snapped back to their default sizes, saved from falling into the ocean by landing in Peridot's palms.

All the Gems were utterly shocked. Shungite just kept her shock under wraps, raising an eyebrow at them all before turning her platform around and flying off.

Eventually, they all congregated on the ocean's surface, Lapis recovering soon enough after a lathering of Stevonnie's saliva. All looked to the two Gems, Peridot perhaps the only one able to speak having missed just about all the action.

"What happens now?"

After a long minute, Stevonnie reached over to bubble Star Lapis Lazuli, sending her back to the Temple for a fate none of them had any intent of releasing her from.

Lapis ran her hand over Gradie's broken gemstone, delicately touching along the sliced segment before resting on the larger portion that had remained. None knew quite what to expect.

Two stars closed in around those respective portions, bringing the scene to complete darkness shortly after.


	16. The Call

_Commence message._

 _Following the regrettable failure of the experiment conducted on Star Lapis Lazuli, I have reached the conclusion that I am at an end to the information to be gathered from this planet. Therefore, I submit for approval my extraction from the failed colony, pending one final task._

 _I intend on retrieving the rest of the samples for further study, but to do so I will require assistance. There is a plan in mind, and I have materials enough to work with to formulate the method itself._

 _What I ask is simple, if not abhorrent to those less open minded like yourself. I must be strong enough to defeat all the renegades in a single battle on their home soil so that they cannot interfere. I must be made whole again._

 _I trust Carbon will be able to advise on how best to achieve that. She and I think alike after all._

 _End message._

* * *

"All those years, never knowing."

The gemstone of Star Lapis Lazuli was still contained in that pink bubble, resting on her lap.

"Should've known Apatite would lie. She knew all along. She had to, with how closely they worked."

After a very long sigh, Gradie reached down to pick up the bubble, then handed it up to Garnet. She needed that had free to stand after all.

"I'll forget about what she did to me, when I'm ready. For now, I'll just live with it."

Garnet took hold of the bubble with both hands, one over the other, nodding sagely.

At the same time, Steven reached his hand up to Gradie's right side in a show of consolation. In some small relief, she wasn't upset by the gesture at all.

"We're here for you. No-one gets left behind."

"I know." Just for a moment, Gradie went to pat his shoulder to show she understood, then sighed at the latest reminder that she had to use her left hand for it. The stump where her right arm and sleeve had previously been metaphorically glaring at her in that cold, reminding way. "I know."

By then, Garnet had reached the Temple door, and was about to open it when Gradie spoke up again.

"Wait. There's one more thing I have to say."

The door opened, though Garnet stayed outside for the moment, turning silently to face the bubbled gemstone to Gradie again.

After a breath for the calming sensation, she lowered down to stare right at the gemstone, holding it for several seconds before her lip trembled. Only then did she make her final break with Star Lapis, to move on from her altogether.

"I win."

She leaned up and turned away at that, wrapping her lone arm around her waist until she was sure Garnet had gone into the Temple. Folding her arms wasn't an option anymore, leaving her little in the way of self-comfort. That and a shuddering breath at having that weight off her mind forever.

Once the door had closed, she let out that breath, slowly approaching the warp pad with another glance to Steven.

"I'll be back in a couple hours. Midday at the latest, I promise. Just need some time to myself."

"Okay, I'll tell the others."

Gradie nodded once before warping away, leaving Steven momentarily alone in the house.

The ideal opportunity to make one vital call.

Just under a minute later, he had his phone out, looking across the ocean view while waiting for his turn to speak.

"Peridot, Gradie will be back by twelve. You think it'll be ready by then?"

* * *

"You okay Lapis?"

It took a moment for Lapis to come out of her daydream state. She had been enjoying the morning breeze on the boardwalk with an arm around Kiki, for the most part anyway. It was harder to relax when so much had happened in the past week.

"Oh, Gradie reformed just after sunrise. Haven't sat down and talked with her yet, since she wanted time to herself first. Which I understand personally, but I guess I haven't been on the other side of that until now."

Kiki just nodded quietly. A major change since going out with Lapis was how much more involved with the Gems she felt on a day to day basis. Unlike most of Beach City, with the exception of Greg of course, she knew a great deal about what happened prior to the second return of the ocean. Not close enough to check in on a constant basis as to Gradie's wellbeing, but certainly enough to care all the same.

One small upside to the time it took to reform was that it made being the person with consolation to offer a lot easier. She could be there for Lapis in her own personal aftermath, and neither of them had to really start worrying about Gradie's aftermath until her return. Even if it was a particularly nerve wracking wait.

From the sound of it, that time was fast approaching, but hadn't yet arrived.

"I know you'll probably wanna keep it one-on-one with her, but if you feel like sisterly comfort would be better…"

"I can come find you and Jenny." Lapis nodded quietly with a little sigh, looking out across the ocean for a while. "To be honest, I don't know what to do, or expect." After chewing at her lip, she looked back to Kiki. "Losing part of her Gem doesn't just mean losing an arm like in her case. Part of her mind is gone as well. And I don't think any of us knows what's missing yet. I don't know how to help her deal with that. Steven can't even uncorrupt that shard of her, let alone reattach it."

They were near the end of the boardwalk by then, prompting Lapis to come to a halt and turn to face Kiki directly. Just holding her, enjoying that moment of tender comfort with the person she felt closest to at that time. One perfect moment that no amount of worrying could tarnish.

Eventually, that prompted the conclusion she came to. "I'll worry about it when she comes back to the barn. I'll know she wants to talk then. For now, I'm going to think about what we can do together."

For her part, Kiki let that moment of quiet affection linger, then moved closer for a more direct hug after. Seeing her go from a Gem that was so very awkward around just about everyone to that level of care and concern, and being part of that. The troubles and issues that inevitably came with it didn't push her away in the slightest anymore.

When they parted from the hug, Lapis had already settled on one particular suggestion that would almost certainly take both their minds off the matter. Hopefully long enough for her to feel ready when the time came.

"I've got rehearsals with Jamie soon, and they'll be getting the stage set up later today. You can be the first to see the water display I've been working on for the play."

"I'll be there as soon as my shift is done then. Still doing the same one after what happened?"

Lapis glanced at the ocean, then after another sigh gave a light shrug of her shoulders.

"We've been working on it a while now. And, I'm not scared of the ocean anymore. The real sea goddess is gone and locked away."

With another shrug, that time accompanied by a smile, Lapis gave a squeeze to Kiki. And, for the first time, a gentle peck to her cheek. She left the moment at that with a quick leap into the air, flying off for the community hall.

* * *

"No, no that won't do, hm."

"Try adjusting the parameters a little more this way."

It took Steven clearing his throat for Pearl and Peridot to look up from their work. At first both moved to stand in front of it as a reflex. The last thing they wanted was to get Gradie's hopes up without having a properly functioning prototype at the very least.

When he entered the barn, they both stepped aside with a small sigh to let him inspect the melded limb replacement anyway.

Recolouring it from Peridot's green to a shade of blue far more fitting a Lapis Lazuli really had been the easy part by the look of it. Several typically hidden panels along the various parts wired together were all wide open to reveal the circuitry within. The five digits to be used for the hand portion looked lifeless as ever.

Pearl's hand eventually went to her head as the reality of their project came back in force. "We're still waiting for the next data burst from Turquenite. Until then, I don't think we're going to ever get it working right."

"Not to mention working within a reasonable time frame."

The most Steven could do was shrug. Until Gradie actually got back and talked with at least one other person, there really wasn't any way to tell what her reaction would be. They barely knew what she was thinking as it was.

"I think she'll appreciate the effort, so long as we don't oversell it. Hiding it from her isn't going to help that."

It was a very mature observation, so much so that Pearl was almost taken aback by it. She also quickly came to agree entirely.

"We'll tell her when she gets back then." She glanced back at that artificial arm with a small sigh. "I do hope she understands why."

"She does. I told her about her arm after you left. That's when she asked to see Star Lapis Lazuli, and then left for alone time."

It caught all three by surprise when the warp pad activated. Moreso when Gradie came flying up the path at a speed that nearly led to her crashing into them.

In her desperation, she went to Pearl first and grabbed her right shoulder frantically.

"There's a real big problem at the Kindergarten! Shungite stole all the injector drills!"

* * *

The rest of the day had been spent attending to that crisis, something that they learned was quite literal indeed. Only the drill bits had been pulled from the injectors, which had been discarded in a large pile near to the warp pad.

That at least made moving those discarded injectors back to the Temple's beach for safekeeping easier for Garnet and Peridot. At least until they had a way to store the injectors inside the Temple itself without taking off half of Steven's house.

It didn't ease the obvious implications though. There was simply no getting around the obvious fact that Shungite had only one real use for that many drill bits.

So great was the constant worrying about the Cluster that they almost missed the initial notification of that data burst Pearl and Peridot had been waiting on. It all went to safe storage on the escape pod for later viewing anyway, but it nonetheless left Pearl exasperated. Even if it would be far harder to not notice the onset of earthquakes, the overall feeling of helplessness and inability to act simply wasn't going away.

After some deliberation, she finally overcame that lingering panic and went right for viewing the contents of the data burst at last. Starting as always with the video message from Turquenite herself.

" _Heya Pearl, Peridot, and all you wonderful Crystal troopers. If you're up and about by now, Gradie, this is for you._ "

Turquenite gave her little salute that Steven had described previously. While it gave Pearl pause to consider asking Gradie to come to the barn, she ultimately decided to leave her be a while longer. At least until she had a chance to work on the arm with the latest batch of information.

" _Assuming this gets to you on time, heard back from Lars and co that they had a bit of trouble on the latest mission, you're probably already done with the basic construction and programming for the arm. Since you're not looking to expand beyond the arm, I've cut down a lot of my research on the gemstone-interface hardware to just what you'll need._ "

Using the interface, Pearl shrank the video feed slightly to double check that the files were indeed there. To her relief that was the case, an extensive slew of gemscript diagrams and texts that all looked right to her at a glance.

"Turquenite you wonderful woman…"

" _And while you're there looking through them all, I'm assuming, take a look at the files listed under Coal Star Coal. Took a lot of work, but if you remember the codename then you already know it was worth every bit of it._ "

Pearl briefly froze up at that mention, then immediately went to do just as suggested. Steven had also mentioned that his attempt to learn more about Shungite, or Carbon for that matter, from White Diamond's personal files hadn't turned up much. Turquenite on the other hand had seemingly broken into far more detailed records of the former's construction.

As well as that of her infamous flute.

" _Gotta be honest, Crystals, I never expected the upper crusts to take these kinds of risks. Always been so very careful with sharing power in my experience. But I've seen enough of those files to know that all three of them poured a big chunk each into making Shungite happen. In White's case quite literally. Hate to think how much of her is going into the rest of the Carbon Army, because they're not their own Gems at all. Not like us, or even the likes of Apatite and Aquamarine._ "

At that, Turquenite looked out of view, growing concerned enough to power up her exosuit before resuming the message.

" _Looks like the robonoids are catching up, so I'll summarize. When the time comes to drive her off Earth, vary up your fusions. The flute isn't the key weapon, Shungite herself is. The flute just channels her healing or disruptive energy into refined sonic vibrations. She can align her energy to other nearby Gems and attack or heal them on a base level. I'm sure it's also how she's beaten you lot most of the time without the flute. You have to change things up faster than she can adapt to them._ "

A red light passed near to Turquenite's location, further hurrying her on as she made ready to leave.

" _Keep varying up those fusions of yours, hit her with everything you have, and maybe you can weaken her enough that she'll back off. There has to be a limit to her adaptability, and if her latest reports are right she's getting ready to leave anyway. Destroying the flute while you're at it would help too, if you can figure out how from those schematics. Wish I could get my group to you for that fight, but I guess it's all on you Crystals now."_

Pearl watched the rest of the video, even though Turquenite didn't add anything further. It went on long enough to show her fighting off the hunter robonoids, then capturing one for the data uplink before the signal cut out altogether. Hopefully only because of the nature of those data bursts, and nothing more.

It was more than they could have ever asked for, and even if it wasn't a way to outright stop Shungite in her tracks, it was information that they could absolutely put to use. All they really had to do was stop her from breaking the Cluster out of its self-containment. Getting her off Earth could come afterwards.

With another sigh, she looked back to the mechanical arm on the table. So many things had gone wrong as a result of retrieving the limb enhancers. It was hard to not think of that as being prophetic.

As Sardonyx, she and Garnet had both agreed to take Shungite by surprise with a sneak attack in the middle of conversation. One simple strategic choice may very well have led them to the inevitable confrontation to come.

"We're going to set this right. We have to."

* * *

Well past sunset, Gradie had been standing there on the shoreline. Staring out over the ocean. Unmoving. Aside from the wind tugging at her fringe and dress, she could have easily been mistaken for a statue.

And yet it was such a non-thing for pretty much everyone in Beach City that didn't know the Crystal Gems well that no-one went down to investigate. Sadie had already gone home. Sour Cream and Buck were on the other side of town, and Jenny was on the evening shift. And she was quite some distance from where they were setting up the stage for the next night's play.

It came down to the arrival of Lapis for Gradie to wake from her trance, just as the next rolling wave washed up around her feet. Not enough to make her turn her head though.

Lapis just walked closer, remaining determined in posture and expression. When just a few metres away from Gradie, she finally stopped in place.

With the twilight phase surrounding them, and the ocean once again open to them both, it seemed the ideal opportunity to let Gradie finally let out everything she had been bottling up inside for so long.

"Do I still call you sister? Are you still Gradie?"

Of all the things, of everything Gradie expected to hear, that one deep corner of her psyche was the absolute last that she thought would come up. Almost certainly why Lapis went there at all.

"Yeah, I'm still Gradie. Your sister." At last, she turned her head a little, enough for fleeting eye contact as they started to well up. "I'm not ready."

Lapis nodded in that knowing way, though didn't move any closer. "And Pearl? Does she know?"

Initially, Gradie shook her head very lightly. When the tears started, she reached up with her left hand, having to wipe one eye at a time despite the urge that demanded both at once. The reminders were far from ready to stop, in so many ways.

"I can't tell her. Not now. Not after how many times we've fused." Her fingers slowly curled in against her cheek. "I didn't want her to know. I didn't want you to know!"

In a sudden outburst, she furiously kicked at the wet sand in a motion that made her turn to face Lapis. Her sole hand scrunched up tight, already starting to churn the evening swell. "I didn't want to fuse with you! But she made me do it! She ruins everything for me! Everything!" Her hand went back up to her face, barely able to cover it in that torrent of outrage. "I'm still trapped by her! Even though she's locked away and never coming back she's trapped me again! I can't fight Shungite like this!"

Lapis finally moved forward when Gradie broke down again, embracing her sibling with every bit of support and warmth she could give. And above all else, total sympathy.

"We're all here for you, Gradie. And we're going to continue being there for you as Sodalite. Whenever you decide to become him."

* * *

Still lying in bed, all Steven could do was stare at the ceiling above. Aside from the occasional whistle of wind around the beach house, the only notable sound was faint clamouring of another injector being placed against the south facing cliff.

Maybe the Cluster was too big for Shungite to overpower and unleash. Maybe giving them some kind of warning wasn't necessary.

Maybe they were missing something.

It was a constant pattern of worry that circled around his head again and again. Sleep would eventually come, but even then the worrying would continue.

"When is it going to be over?"

A faint sigh later, and he was leaning from his spot on the bed to look over at the portrait of Rose Quartz.

"Is this what it was like? Before it all happened?"

Expectedly, there was no response from the portrait.

That time when his head hit the pillow, Steven really did his utmost to relax, and not think about what the next day would bring. If he found that connection to the Cluster, he would warn them. If not, he would just get what sleep was possible Very simple, very manageable.

* * *

Shungite ceased her latest attempt at crafting music of her own with her flute when she heard the signal. After several hours of waiting, she had finally received the direct link to Homeworld she had requested.

Standing up and striding away from the cliff face, the wind gushing around her base of operations too, she approached her pod and brought up the screen to full view before her.

After a few seconds it flickered to life, displaying White Pearl, which came at the annoyance of Shungite.

" _This is White Diamond's Pearl, calling collect from Homeworld. Do you accept the charges?_ "

Shungite raised a rather perturbed eyebrow.

" _That is the last time I let you indulge in researching that ghastly human culture on my behalf."_

The screen flickered to display White Diamond at last, once again back in her Homeworld dome. Still facing away from view, though slightly turned to the right that time. The vast spikes of hair concealed her face nonetheless.

It didn't stop Shungite from performing the expected salute, along with a humble nod of her head.

"Thank you for this opportunity your clarity. May I assume this means my request has been fulfilled?"

White Diamond's right hand moved from a screen she was working at down to her side. With a flick of her fingers, a pair of half-lens spectacles materialized between them, which she proceeded to don out of view.

" _The others cannot know of this. They are both already upset by the handling of the situation at Elysium. What you propose shakes the very foundation of our perfect society._ "

"Preserving the foundation of our society has never superceded the pursuit of advancement, my Diamond. They will never know. They do not need to know. Especially given the value of what I intend to collect."

There was a long pause from White Diamond, presumably as she debated the situation to herself. Eventually, that familiar tilt of her head came, along with another gesture of her hand to White Pearl.

" _Very well. It will be sent immediately. Expect arrival in this time frame._ " She listed out the timing itself once the estimations came through. " _Please be sure to provide precise landing coordinates when it is in orbit. Do not disappoint me, Shungite._ "

As soon as the transmission closed, Shungite rolled her eyes and walked back to the cliff face.

"Clearly your Pearl isn't the only one over-indulging in Earth-culture cliches, White."

She sat back down cross-legged, bringing the flute to her lips once more. Eyes closed, wind whistling around her, waiting for the notes that came naturally to her.

* * *

 _On the eve of battle..._

"When you're ready, Gradie. There's no hurry."

Despite doubting Pearl's assertion greatly, Gradie nonetheless opted to take her time. The mechanical arm felt so very unnatural now that it was in place of her real one. She had tried out the limb enhancer once before, and yet for something built out of the exact same device, the feel of it couldn't be any different.

She could feel through it at least, if only in the most basic way. Like how the atmosphere of a planet first felt when emerging from the ground. No sense of heat, texture, humidity or anything. Just plain, nondescript touch. The rest of her could feel just fine, but not the arm.

Slowly, she lifted that arm up towards her neck, flexing the hovering digits into a vague grasping shape in front of her damaged gemstone. When nothing occurred, she lowered her arm back rather abruptly with a frustrated grunt.

"It's not working."

Pearl took a very calm, reserved breath, leaning forward on her seated position at the arena stands. "Use your other hand then. There's no shame in adapting old habits to suit new situations."

Gradie glared rather darkly in Pearl's direction before lifting her left hand to her neck. The hilt of her sword materialized into her waiting hand, which she drew out and went to grasp with the mechanical one after.

Even before it fully emerged, she could feel the hovering digits failing to get a proper grip around the blunt base. Bringing it down to a defensive stance caused them to start sliding up the blade, forcing more of the balance weight onto her left hand.

Her fingers were tight around the handle as she guessed exactly what would happen next, as were her teeth. As expected, even a simple swing threw her off balance altogether, the digits losing the grip altogether mid swing so that she was pulled by the inertia. Her grumbling quickly went up to a growl.

"Gradie, don't over exert-"

"I know Pearl! I know!"

Gradie gripped the blade again, then went for another practise swing. Once again the mechanical arm simply didn't carry the weight as she expected it to, causing her to stumble down from the loss of balance with an cry of anger.

In her outburst, she threw the sword away only to start clawing at the arm, eventually yanking it off her shoulder and tossing it clear.

By the time Pearl finally reached her, Gradie was in tears again, clutching at her face with her remaining hand.

She could tell just enough to know that it wasn't just the loss of her arm throwing her off altogether. It was more fundamental. There really was an entire chunk of her skill gone without reconciliation. Her sword fighting days were well and truly over in her view.

Without saying a word, Pearl simply sat down beside her, and pulled the other Gem into a tight comfort embrace. Holding it for as long as it took the sobbing to subside, giving her all the time she needed to let it out.

She didn't know the full extent of Gradie's trauma, or what else was contributing to that state. Nor did she need to know in order to just be there for her.

"It's going to get better, eventually. I know you can make it there."

* * *

Another crack of Amethyst's whip sliced clean through the injector hull, cutting it into two mostly even sized pieces. Garnet soon moved over to pick them both up, balancing one on each arm before hopping up towards the warp pad on the Temple statue's palm.

It left Amethyst momentarily bored as she had been specifically asked not to keep chopping up injectors without Garnet picking out the internals first. Which meant more time to think about irrelevant things.

"So, more fusions for the fight huh?"

"Yep."

Garnet warped into the Temple before further questions could be asked. It only took a minute at most for her to return however, as they had deliberately locked Amethyst's doorway open for the simplest storage space available.

Amethyst waited until she returned to the beach front. "You excited, or bothered? Been really quiet lately."

To that, Garnet gave the most nonchalant shrug she could. "Fusions should be allowed to happen naturally. But if Turquenite believes it's the best plan of attack, then I won't argue. She's proven herself."

"Think we should bring Sugilite in for a round then?"

That time when Garnet shrugged, it was far more casual, less concern behind her reaction. "It's not going to be for long. Either way we'll be unfused before getting stuck as her again."

"Fair." Amethyst wound up her whip again while she waited for Garnet to gut the next injector. "And what about the others? Gradie's probably not gonna fuse with anyone, but Lapis might. I bet Steven's been waiting for the right time a long while now."

"I'm not going to speculate."

Amethyst sighed, readying for another cutting strike once the injector was in place.

Garnet adjusted her visor a little, then smiled. "I plan on finishing that dance with Peridot. The rest will happen when it happens."

After another exchange of nods, the pair went back to their respective tasks in relative silence, focusing more on getting it done soon. There were still a lot of injectors to get through yet.

* * *

"Hey Jamie."

In the middle of nailing some blue streamers to the stage set, biting onto some of those nails for easy reach, Jamie only managed a mumble in response to Steven. At least until he was done, and had safely climbed back down the ladder.

"Steven, you here for Lapis?"

Steven shrugged after glancing around. Reaching high places was the sort of thing Lapis could do effortlessly, so it was simple enough to deduce that she wasn't around.

He didn't have a pressing need or question for her anyway. "Just seeing how this is going. Need a hand?"

"Nah, this is just some extra touches. Everything's ready for tonight."

Both moved back a bit to take a look at the finished result. The wood panelling attached to the metal framework had been painted up to match the water theme, and the extra details did add that much more to the piece as a whole. With Lapis' expert control over water, it was bound to be quite the spectacle when the play itself began.

After a little while, Jamie sighed quietly, smiling for it. "It's been great working with her, Lapis I mean. Things were a little awkward after the lunch date, but now, we've gone and put this together. She's been so enthusiastic."

Steven nodded quietly. It was something genuinely pleasing to hear about her, even if everything else of late kept his mood down from that.

"Maybe months down the line, there'll be more Gems joining the theatre group, when we get them all away from Homeworld. I bet you two would be great at teaching."

Jamie gave a slight nod, soon followed up by a shrug. "I'd certainly give it a go. Plenty of time to prepare at least, right? I think Lapis mentioned something about a rescue mission taking months."

There was another nod from Steven. "A lot of Gem colonies out there to cover." Looking up at the evening sky, and the first stars to peek through the sunset reminded him of the waning time. "I bet you'd get some amazing theatre ideas from Lars and the others when they're back for good. I have to head over to the car wash now."

"Say hi to your dad for me then, Barb's been on his mail route a while now. You both coming later tonight?"

With one last glance at the stage, Steven sighed lightly. "I'm not sure. There's a lot going on with the Gems, I think I'd rather stay home and work that out instead. Good luck with the play."

Steven carefully got down from the stage after that, heading back up the beach through the rows of empty chairs. There still wasn't any sign of Lapis, though by then it wasn't uncommon to see her spending time with Kiki or Jenny, if she wasn't at the barn with Peridot instead. It was still enough to keep him at ease, and have one less thing to feel burdened by.

* * *

Alone on the cliff, Shungite played her music until she heard the sound of thunder where there were no clouds.

Her eyes opened to the streak of light approaching her position. More precisely, the beacon she had set up as guidance for the incoming delivery.

To exact precision, the pod landed at the spot designated by her beacon. The ground surrounding it was hot to the touch, a few spots of fire scorching the flattened grass that had shaped into the pattern of a diamond. The pod itself was jet black, just like the one she had arrived in those months previous.

Against the howling winds she stood up once more, striding down the slope leading to the cliff. Towering over the pod, she watched and waited.

It took a minute for the hatch on top to open, through which emerged her requisition.

A Black Pearl.

As expected of her, the Pearl in question bowed her head while giving the customary salute, keeping her eyes facing the ground. Her gemstone was located on the back of her left hand.

"Your clarity. White Diamond offers her assurances of this Pearl's refinement and quality, and hopes that you will make good use of it."

The complete, unquestioning submission in Black Pearl's voice made Shungite smile in a small, but nonetheless sickening way. Her left hand reached down to Pearl's chin, the tip of her finger larger than her head, and still moving delicately enough to tilt her chin upwards.

"You understand what will be done with you, then? That you will not object or resist in any way. You will effectively cease to exist, as long as my discretion holds."

Black Pearl's face remained blank. Unwavering. Entirely aware of what was about to occur, and programmed to not react to it with any of the horror and disgust it deserved.

"Understanding is not required of a Pearl."

That sickening smile shifted into a malicious grin.

"Good. You see, I have learned much from Star Lapis Lazuli's arrogant mistakes. Oh, why am I even bothering explaining to a speck?"

Without hesitation, Shungite lifted her hand, then slapped it right down over Black Pearl, dissipating her form instantly. Her fingers curled in, then her hand twisted around to ensure the gemstone itself was perched right between her fingertips.

Her right hand lifted up to deliver a loud snap of her fingers, drawing over a robonoid of her own construction. The last that hadn't been stored in her gemstone for the battle to come, along with the rest of her equipment.

"Begin recording."

The robonoid flashed a red light to indicate it had done so.

"White Diamond, witness the true beginning of Era Three. We can yet correct the flaws in all Gems. Ensure all remains ordered and perfect. Let the renegades and their defective counterparts serve new roles. That which fills the gaps, corrects the mistakes of those worthy, makes whole all those who are incomplete."

Shungite closed her eyes as her gemstone started to glow. Then, she initiated fusion with the inactive Black Pearl.

It was an antithesis of just about every other fusion, save for the one that formed Azurite. Even Malachite's creation wasn't so terrible in its occurrence.

The dazzling stream of white light that emerged was tainted by black lightning. Where there was otherwise a melding of mind and form, an equal exchange, there was one consuming the other. Drawing from it, leeching essence and energy.

Before the process was complete, there was a chilling screech. A small part echoing Shungite's voice, but for the most part that of Black Pearl's last moments of consciousness.

When it was over, Perfect Shungite was on her hands and knees.

The angular nature of her face and hair had rounded out, taking on a new sheen from the flat shade of grey they respectively had. The fins on her shoulders were larger, and accompanied by many more shears of armour plating that extended behind her shoulders upward, cupped around behind her head as if an extension of her hood-like hair.

It was similar down below, the identical shears that decorated her skirt layering more to cover the flat fabric altogether. Her boots had also gained far more spines, bearing the curved points that marked her true self.

Her senses finally recovering, she stood back upright, finally looking down to her left hand. Adorned on the back was Black Pearl's gemstone, enlarged to match her size.

With a small growl, her hand clenched, as did her teeth, causing the fist to tremble. Within seconds, the gemstone sank into the hand itself, covered over completely by the grey surface that was her form. Every trace of that Pearl's existence was now gone.

At last, Perfect Shungite looked to the robonoid. Her once solid black irises now had pupils to them, of stark white.

"I would say the first stage of the experiment is a success. I will begin the second phase immediately."

Another snap of her right hand fingers shut the recording off. She snatched the robonoid from the air for storage in her gemstone once more, leaving just the pod to dispose of with a few hard stamps of her foot.

It left her with an addicting sense of power. Such destruction had become effortless. Her entire form felt lighter than ever, no longer burdened by the impurities that made up her existence. They weren't gone from her gemstone, merely held in check. And that was good enough.

"Where thousands on thousands of Gems failed, I will succeed. Let the end of the Crystal Rebellion be on this glorious day."

In a fluid motion, she twisted her form and leapt for the sky. When she landed, it was on the ocean's surface, landing squarely across the turbulent water, but not sinking into it.

Her landing left her in prime readiness for a sprint, something she felt so very appropriate. Especially with her pointed form aimed directly towards Beach City across the world from her position.

"I come."

All of her strength went into that burst of speed, her motions solid as she leapt across the ocean with every stride. So much faster than flying, and guaranteed to make her entrance known to all.

The star closed in around her wake as she faded into the horizon, then in on itself altogether.


	17. Contact: Unknown Accept?

"And from the ocean rose a tower of blue! A spire of seawater! A monument to touch the sky!"

Lapis lifted her hands, drawing up the water from a nearby bucket into a flowing water spout, keeping it from splashing away. The resulting air currents caused her dark blue cape to flow about her form, further adding to the apparition that her character was to be.

Jamie smiled gleefully at the result, as well as the sounds of awe from the audience, before continuing his narration.

"Higher and higher, the Water Witch stretched as far as she could! Desperate to escape! Longing for home."

With some subtle use of her wings, Lapis lifted off the stage in a slow rise, drawing out more of the water to flow around her in a very stylized way. A flick of her head cast the hood off, letting her locks of hair waft around her head more.

At that moment, Jamie popped out from behind cover at last, wearing a large brown wig that might have implied he was playing as Steven. Onion walking out after in a pink shirt with a yellow star clarified that he was in fact Garnet with the wrong hair colour. Sadie had taken to playing Pearl, and Amethyst and Connie had been dropped from the scene since Ronaldo and Jenny had both dropped out earlier in the week for work commitments.

"You've taken our ocean! We definitely mishandled your situation with poor judgement, but stealing all the water and leaving the good citizens of Beach City without its greatest tourist attraction is not the way to make your grievances known!"

In the audience, Greg tilted his head about before glancing down to Steven. "I don't think Garnet has ever said that much in one go."

"Maybe not back then. Anyway, this is the best part."

By then, Lapis had summoned up a disc of water, keeping it flat on a plane facing the audience to only give the illusion of bubbling the various actors. They in turn waved their arms and walked about in a wobbly fashion behind the flat circle of water.

"I don't care! I want to leave this world! I never believed in Earth!"

The bubble reformed into some loose copies of Jamie and Sadie for them both to fight with boxing gloves and a broom handle respectively, made easier by the fact that the copies couldn't be harmed. They quickly worked off stage so the narration could continue for Onion's part while he mumbled up at Lapis.

"When the fighting grew dire, the humble Steven Universe took a chance, and reached out to the Water Witch on high! Hoping to save everyone around him through a peaceful solution."

After some more mumbling, Lapis pooled a bit of water under Onion's feet, then hardened it into ice to lift him up on safely.

It was a moment of quiet in the performance, the audience watching with quite a bit of attention, while Steven was left reliving that moment from memory. It did also make him aware of a strange sound coming from behind the stage, like the waves behind a jetski, only there was no motor sound. And it was getting louder.

At that point, Lapis leaned up from listening to Onion's mumblings, casting away her dark cloak as a very artistic metaphor for the healing of her gemstone.

"I am free of this burden! I can go home at last! Perhaps this place is not as hopeless as I first thought!"

Right on cue, she lowered Onion back down while twirling up into the air, bringing the water pillar with her for what would be a spectacular display of her departure in water.

Instead, she hesitated completely when she caught a glimpse of the ocean itself. Racing right towards Beach City was the unmistakable shape and colour of Shungite. At that speed, bolting across the water, she was going to reach them in seconds.

Immediately, she threw the water back down towards the crowd, curving it under their seatsand hardening just enough to push everyone back towards the pier. Smaller currents wrapped around Onion, Jamie and Sadie to send them to either side of the stage as far as she could manage in that time.

"Steven! Shungite's coming!"

Disorientated by the sudden shift, everyone in the crowd, Steven included, had been forced to look downward by the inertia. The resulting tilt back up put their attention to the sky, just in time to see Shungite illuminated against the moonlight mid leap.

She crashed down directly on the stage, Lapis having been in the direct path of her left boot as she landed in a half-kneel position on the right knee.

Chairs were knocked everywhere as the disorientated audience members tried to escape to the pier above. In the midst of it all, Steven and Greg had stuck together, with Kiki soon finding them in the fray, clearly frantic.

"Did she crush Lapis!?"

Steven didn't answer, and not for lack of believing that Lapis had just poofed and was buried by the impact.

For that long moment, his gaze was locked with Shungite's. Her empty eyes now having actual life behind them made her that much more menacing. It took him quite a bit longer to notice the rest of her form had changed as well, far more elaborate. And complete.

When she moved to stand, Steven took a step forward. It wouldn't take long for the other Gems to arrive, but he had to stall Shungite from destroying the town as long as he could anyway. They weren't going to win the fight quickly.

"Haven't you done enough to us? Why does every Homeworld Gem want to ruin Beach City?"

In another demonstration of how much she had suddenly changed, Shungite glanced over the town before her, then broke out into a menacing laugh.

"Other Gems are careless! I need something to warm up on!"

Her left boot came up to swing at Steven, and by consequence Greg and Kiki right behind him. Steven brought up his shield in large form to deflect it, managing to do so only because she had been so uninvested with the swing. The impact still pushed him back a full metre, and left his arm rather sore.

"Tell the Gems to get ready, I'm coming for them all next!"

Shungite leapt up into the air again, from the sound of it landing on the other beach to begin causing havoc at Funland.

Immediately, Steven turned back to the others, starting with Greg first.

"Dad! Get Mom's cannon out of storage and over to the Temple as soon as you can! But don't drive near Shungite!"

After all they had been through, Greg just nodded and went to do as asked without question. He was utterly terrified of the turn of events, and doing something to help was the only thing keeping him from yet another panic attack.

That left Kiki, who was still hesitant to go searching for Lapis amidst the debris of the stage. Jamie and Sadie had both run over to start searching it anyway, while Onion was calmly walking up the stairs to go watch Shungite's devastation.

Steven eventually resorted to a rather firm hand tug to get her attention just long enough again. "When you find Lapis, take her to the barn with the car. I'm going to warp over there as soon as possible and give you the whistle. If it gets really bad, start getting any poofed Gem over to Watermelon Island when I bring them to you. Sadie knows how if you need help. They'll come back when they reform. You got that?"

"Yeah, I think so?"

Kiki's voice was trembling, moreso when she looked back over her shoulder as a loud crash echoed out from across the town. At any moment, it could be Fish Stew Pizza that was crushed underfoot next.

Eventually, she made herself look back to the stage, reaching within to bolster her courage. For as long as it would last anyway. It was enough to start running back down the beach to help with the search, leaving Steven free to work out the many things he had to do.

The only good part of the situation was that Shungite attacking them meant she wasn't drilling for the Cluster yet. That wasn't something she'd leave to a robonoid after all. On the flipside, she was already causing mass destruction, had somehow reformed into an even more powerful body, and had taken down one of the Crystal Gems as her literal first step alone.

The escalation from the corrupt Gems, to Jasper, Aquamarine and Topaz, the Diamonds, and eventually Shungite's earlier stages didn't feel nearly adequate for the task ahead. Even Apatite's maniacal behaviour couldn't compare with the wanton destruction taking place. Especially when Shungite's previous visit to the town had been for a supposed apology of all things.

Fists clenching, he began running for the Temple, quickly bounding up into a long leap that would get him there faster, and give enough time for one very important phone call.

To his relief, Connie picked up within seconds.

" _Steven?_ "

"Connie, Shungite's here. Lapis is missing, I'm getting the other Gems together now. Lion is going to arrive within the next few minutes to get you here. It's going down tonight."

" _Oh gosh…_ " There was some silence, most likely while Connie informed her parents of the bad news, and her abrupt departure. " _I'll be ready. Do we have a solid plan?_ "

Steven looked over the town as he reached the height of his leap. It was hard to stay airborne properly while the devastation of Shungite's delighted havoc loomed beneath him.

"I don't think any pre-planning would've helped. We just have to follow Turquenite's suggestion, and wear Shungite down. Keep the sword back for when she tries to use the flute."

" _Alright. My mom's gonna head over to help with anyone that gets hurt. Is the beach safe?_ "

"For now. Please be careful, Connie."

Shortly after hanging up, he landed just shy of his house. Garnet was already on the porch, apparently on the verge of coming to get him herself.

"Steven! Amethyst went to get Pearl and Gradie! Where's Lapis?"

Steven began hurrying up the stairs in the midst of that, not wanting to waste any time. "Shungite poofed her. Where's Peridot?"

"Moving the Quartizine Trio out to where we can use it. I saw you asking Greg to get the main cannon to the beach. We'll figure out the rest from there."

As they went inside to wait around the main warp pad, the one up on the statue's hand activated. Peridot had just arrived with the trio cannon, and was doing her best to get it down to the beach without outright dropping it.

Inside, Garnet was left feeling extremely tense while waiting at the warp pad. Steven at least had a chance to ask Lion to head over to Connie's house before joining in the waiting.

The sight of the warp pad lighting up to Pearl, Amethyst and Gradie was more relieving than ever, as was Peridot's timely arrival once they had stepped off.

"Alright Gems, I'm keeping this short, because we have to play this exactly right before more people get hurt. We can't form Alexandrite to fight her, she had plenty of time to attune during the fight with Star Lapis Lazuli. We start out with Sardonyx to see if she's lost attunement to older fusions, then cycle from there. Sugilite will be next. Don't hold back on her, but don't damage yourselves trying to hold an unstable fusion together just to get a few hits in either Clear?"

Everyone had the same question on mind at that moment, but it was Peridot who took the dive of raising her hand.

"Speaking of Lapis?"

Again, the attention fell to Steven. Doubt had started to creep in by then. And the fact that Garnet had asked the same question wasn't helping matters.

"Poofed, I think. I need to go see if Kiki is at the barn with her now."

The implication struck Gradie hardest, her hand clenching tight for it as she tried to hold back the panic. Turning it into fury directed at Shungite wasn't easy, but nonetheless her only option.

"Let's turn this waste of carbon to dust."

For once, there was no argument for the others. Not even a disparaging look at her aggression. Shungite had manipulated, tormented, and outright committed horrible acts so many times that what sympathy might have existed at one point was pretty much gone. There was a time for words, and a time for action.

* * *

"Miserable creatures! No defined purpose! No sense of order!"

Funland was in utter ruins at that point, which left Mr Smiley in a state requiring Buck and Sour Cream to physically drag him away from the area of danger into the back of Mayor Dewey's van.

Further down the street, Shungite had moved onto tearing up backyards and the like with long scoops of her hand, while shouting taunts at the people fleeing their homes. On the other side, Jenny was doing her best to ferry those now refugees to the old warehouse where more citizens had started to gather for shelter. Hopefully out of sight of the Gem terrorizing the town.

More often than not, she ended up glancing over at the barn in the distance, greatly worried about Kiki in particular after having left her there instead. All it would take was one leap from Shungite to crush the barn as well.

At the end of the street, just past the car wash, Gradie and Peridot were preparing for the first stage of the plan. The latter was concentrating her ferrokinesis on a large steel crossbeam.

"You can definitely make the shot, Peridot?"

"Of course. The cannons just don't use as much magnetic metal. This will work."

Reluctantly, Gradie nodded while placing her hand on the crossbeam. Her form dissolved into water, lashing up and around the facing end of the beam, then hardening into dense ice at the tip to form a rudimentary ballista bolt. Her gemstone was resting right against the metal itself under the thickest layer of the ice.

The bolt began to vibrate as Peridot started concentrating potential energy into it, her own hands shaking, waiting for the right moment.

"Hey! Clodface! Open up!"

Shungite only heard a faint echo of Peridot's screeching, but it was enough to get her attention nonetheless. She turned her head towards the outcry, just in time for the Gradie-tipped bolt to plunge right in between her eyes.

The immediate area of her form began to digitize from the damage, but was already restoring inward to expel the steel beam.

Gradie was quicker, melting most of her ice form then reshaping her upper body, leaving her left arm a large spike of ice.

"This is what I think of your abuse enabling culture!"

Her spike arm plunged right into Shungite's eye repeatedly, causing more digitizing around every entry point.

By then, Shungite had reached up to grab both her and the beam in one go, yanking each free from her face and hurling them away, growling in anger.

Gradie recovered from the mid-air sprawl while reforming the rest of her body, swooping back down and grabbing Peridot's outstretched arms as she started to flee up the hill. Together, both swept right up the grassy incline and past the lighthouse, out of sight for the moment.

"Fine, since you can't wait your turn."

Shungite leapt into the air once again, that time twirling around at the peak so that she would land facing the Temple on arrival. Once again, she added extra flair to further her obnoxious behaviour, arms wide and head bowed on landing.

"Long time, sugar."

That time, Shungite looked up just as Sardonyx's hammer connected with her face, catapulting her out across the ocean. She was quick to clamber back to her feet, reaching for her gemstone even as the towering fusion charged towards her, readying another swing.

"Should've been nicer from the onset. We could've avoided all this."

She whipped out her baton in one long piece, taking hold of one end with each end to snap in the middle, then bringing them together in a cross to block the downward swing directed at her head.

"Now, I'm going to break each of you Crystal Gems! One by one!"

When they broke from the lock of weapons, she dropped her batons and went for a grapple, charging Sardonyx right back into the Temple. The two giant Gems smashed against the statue with a billowing cloud of dust, sending various fragments of Obsidian's personage across the surrounding ocean.

It was good fortune that Steven wasn't near the house at the point of impact, though seeing his home destroyed by the shockwave didn't help matters at all.

Amethyst raced up along the beach from the town in the meantime, just as Gradie and Peridot came in to land.

"Greg's on his way! They're going to unfuse any minute now, we need to distract her longer!"

Steven nodded confidently. "Alright, Sardonyx is still okay so far, so that means-"

"Steven, wait."

Surprisingly, it was Gradie who had spoken up, motioning her hand to Steven for a chance to speak. "Leave Smokey Quartz for later, when it's down to just the toughest of Gems." She then reached her hand out to Amethyst. "I've been in a really bad way mentally, but I want to get over it by doing something right. Think you can help, Amethyst?"

Peridot and Steven both looked to each other nervously, then at the trio of cannons that they'd soon be putting to use.

Amethyst glanced at the hand offered, thinking back on her earlier assumption when talking with Garnet, then nodded with a determined smile.

"You're a little tall for a Shorty Squad member, but maybe that makes it even better."

The smile was returned as they clasped hands, both quickly shifting to pure light as their forms started to merge.

Ironically, the form itself shrank a little to somewhere in height between Amethyst and Gradie, rather than going larger than both, bulky limbs being the first to manifest. The left arm looked proportionate to the rest of the form, while the right was notably thinner. Gradie's missing arm was clearly going to impact on all her fusions.

From the head soon sprouted a long mane of hair, after which both arms reached up above to combine Gradie's sword and Amethyst's whip.

When the new fusion materialized, there was a gust of lilac-coloured powder as she flicked her hair about, letting the bangs fall over her mauve headband.

Gradie's eyes were set under Amethyst's, not unlike the original Rainbow Quartz. Their clothing had amalgamated into a long sleeved, but still shoulderless shirt with torn ends, something repeated for the pants. Both were coloured a deep purple, streaked with shades leading towards lavender.

That left the sword, which the new fusion gave a flick of to test. Having expected something crude like the whip tied around the hilt of the sword, what they got instead was a blade divided into several segments with the whip itself tying them all together.

It was absolutely ridiculous and implausible a weapon, and that made her smile wickedly.

"Radical."

She turned her head back up to the ongoing battle between Sardonyx and Shungite, soon to end as the former would unfuse at any moment for safety.

"Hey! Dumb-face! Charoite is in the house, and ready to party!"

From her back sprouted a pair of crystalline wings, tinted purple as expected, allowing Charoite to spring up into the air and dash right towards Shungite. She swung the sword wide, letting the blades extend out with a loud clink at each segment disconnecting from the previous, plunging the slew of slices into the shoulder region.

It was enough distraction to allow Garnet and Pearl to unfuse at last, landing clear of the debris that had been the Temple before running over to Steven and Garnet.

"Where's the cannon?"

"Dad shouldn't be far now. Who do we form next when Charoite needs to back off?"

Three of the four looked to each other, Pearl questioning whether she and Peridot would form a Spinel as well like the accidental fusion Garnet had spoken of, then dismissing the name for being too awkward.

Garnet got there first anyway, reaching out to Peridot. "Time to finish our dance. And I think I know exactly what we're going to fight her with."

Given the growing urgency, as Charoite was much smaller and thus somewhat more vulnerable to being grabbed and thrown around, Peridot just accepted with a nod and a return hold.

That time, Steven and Pearl's observation of that fusion years in the making was interrupted by the sound of Greg hurtling down the beach with a rickety trailer in tow. The laser light cannon hadn't been secured down, and thus was making the most tremendous of noises.

"Steeeeeveeeeen!"

"Park it anywhere here Greg!" Pearl frantically waved her hands towards the cliff side. "We'll take it from here!"

By then, the latest of the fusions that night had fully formed. A soft orange in colour, with a visor so extravagant it looked as if it could poke someone's eye out. For the most part it still resembled a pretty expected melding of Garnet and Peridot, the wide frame and such remaining. The lanky arms however had nearly doubled in length from what they should've been, as had the fingers themselves.

She looked over her new arms with the four eyes behind the visor, Sapphire's having not manifested, then clapped her extremely long hands just as Greg pulled up at last.

"Feeling like a bit of a Honey Opal tonight. Just call me Honey..." She looked back over to the ruins of Steven's home at that moment. "And now that joke is really awkward. Nevermind."

She flinged out her long arms past the group towards the pile of injectors that had yet to be cut up. The pile immediately started to levitate upward, some of the husks splitting and spreading out, others curling and tightening in. All of it soon started flying towards Honey Opal, then split into two groups as she spread her arms apart.

With loud clangs and thuds, the various bits of metal, circuitry and crystal glass mashed together, until she thumped the two enormous gauntlets above her head with a loud boom.

"It's hammer time!"

Honey Opal span around to start running up the beach, her massive gauntlets barely evading the sand as they swang in front of her. When she leapt up, Charoite had her whip-sword wrapped around Shungite's neck, leaving her wide open for both gauntlets to come together in a massive clap with her head in the middle.

Pearl and Steven wasted little time in getting the cannon off the trailer following that, only briefly interrupted by the arrival of Connie and Lion. They got right back to arranging the four cannons to face the direction of battle for their next stage of attack, leaving them in position once set.

"Alright. Now we just need to lure her into range."

While Pearl made the final adjustments with Greg's assistance, Steven rushed over to hug Connie tightly. Everything had gone by so quickly that there was little he could say at the moment.

For her it was much the same, only having seen the wrecked house and Temple statue so far. And the ensuing battle between the various fusions.

"Is it as bad as it looks?"

"Yeah."

Connie closed her eyes a few moments, then pulled away from the hug to hold Steven's shoulders instead. "We'll beat her. There's nothing that can't be rebuilt eventually, right?"

Steven took another look at the house, then back to Connie. "I'm not worried about my home that much. This could get much worse."

Charoite's approach made them both break from the hold, her wings bearing some battle damage, as did the rest of her form right up until the moment that Gradie and Amethyst unfused. Both landed on the beach with a controlled skid, standing back upright quickly after.

Amethyst was already eager to get back into the thick of it. "Pearl! Probably the only chance we'll get to fight as Opal alongside Honey Opal!"

Luckily, Pearl had finished adjusting the angles of each cannon, hurrying over to fuse with Amethyst yet again.

That left Gradie, who glanced between Steven and Connie before sighing quietly. "You'd better become Stevonnie. I'll lure Shungite into the line of fire. I still don't think I'd be comfortable identifying as something in-between."

"What do you mean-?"

"You'll know soon, Steven. Get ready."

Before taking off, Gradie took the time to bring the mechanical arm out from her gem and begin setting it on her shoulder. After brushing off some of the scrapes and marks from her breakdown earlier in the day.

That time, rather than trying to make use of her sword, she brought the digits around to form the energy blaster. With one more look to the continuing battle, she closed her eyes, then took off again to help the two Opals.

Questions remained on Steven's mind in particular before he focused back on the next part of the plan. "Dad, you'd better go help the others get clear of the town. Lion will come find you if anything happens."

He glanced at Lion at that moment, who nodded his head and made a snuffling sound. Steven chose to interpret that as a sign of agreement.

Greg used that last opportunity to embrace Steven, soon parting with a hand on his head, then his shoulder.

"I'm proud, Steven. See you when this is over, promise?"

"Promise."

While Greg returned to the van and hastily drove back up the beach, there was one more chance for Steven and Connie to talk as themselves before fusing. It wouldn't be for too long, as they were just as vulnerable as any of the other fusions, leaving little room for anything else that had to be said.

"Connie, if any of the other Gems poof, get them to the barn. Kiki is waiting there with the whistle. And if it looks really bad, don't come back to the Temple. Okay?"

Knowing better than to argue with that implication, Connie just nodded. At the very least, knowing what to do if Steven was part of a different fusion was worthwhile.

"We'll face this together. And we'll stop her together."

That time when the two embraced, their forms merged together at last, leaving Stevonnie in their place.

By then, Honey Opal had unfused at last, Peridot clinging to Garnet as she sailed down to the beach while the injector casings and scrap fell into the ocean. Opal had been letting loose piercing arrows as quickly as she could from the top of the cliff, leaving Shungite's midsection a digitized mess without any sign of actually decaying. Gradie was zipping around, firing energy blasts to keep Shungite from attacking the remains of the Temple.

"Gradie! Now!"

There was no time to double check that she had heard their confirmation. Stevonnie immediately ran back to where the cannons had been placed, hiding behind the single one, both hands holding onto it for stability.

"If every porkchop…"

They all started to hum with the activation of the energy cores within. The thumping of Shungite's steps started to get close.

"Were perfect."

The tips of the cannons began to unfurl into the rose shapes. Gradie came into view of the small alcove, flying backwards while continuing to fire off blasts. By then, Opal had unfused as well, Amethyst and Pearl moving to join the other four Gems.

"We wouldn't have…"

From the barrel of each cannon came the familiar pink glow. Deliberately slowing down the activation phrase was causing an energy build up, but they had to hold it for the exact right moment.

It came as Shungite loomed around the cliff, only just noticing the arrangement of weapons directed at her.

"Porkchops!"

The resulting beam of raw energy struck Shungite full on. Blasting her from the waist up to above her head, and continuing on the other side with growing intensity until there were just arms and legs sticking out from the enormous light shaft.

When the cannons stopped firing, there was just a minimal outline of Shungite's form, connecting what remained of her limbs to each other as her ethereal form fell back into the water.

The fact that it had obliterated her shoulders as well granted a look at her gemstone in full at long last. It was almost identical to Carbon's as expected, but lacking the bevel on the underside.

Stevonnie moved out from hiding as the other Gems raced along, looking over her disintegrated form with restrained enthusiasm at having done real damage to her.

At least until those limbs started to get back upright, her form regenerating from the very edges, leaving an outline of her shape in black and grey.

"Oh come on!"

"That's cheating!"

The entire group moved to scatter as Shungite charged in again, that time whipping around for a flying roundhouse kick that pulverized the Quartizine Quartet to powder.

Not wasting any time, Garnet ran back over to Amethyst as soon as Shungite backed off for another attack.

"Sugilite! Now!"

Nodding once more, Amethyst began running as well, meeting Garnet in the middle with a bright flash. The two quickly swelled up in size to become Sugilite, swinging at what had taken form of Shungite's head so far to make her back off before bringing out the giant flail.

Pearl was equally as vigilant, running over to Stevonnie and Gradie who were still picking themselves up. "We'll have to keep trying! That blast took a lot out of her! I'll fuse with Peridot next and-" She looked around quickly, having noticed Peridot wasn't yet with them.

Stevonnie gasped when they noticed the green gemstone lying in the gouge in the beach where Shungite's foot had landed. Thankfully Peridot hadn't been thrown up against the cliff face, either to be crushed against the rock itself or sent shooting down one of the many many tight holes left by the Drill Parasites.

Sensing where things were going, Gradie quickly began stowing her mechanical arm away again while looking to Stevonnie. "Go take her to the barn. Shungite's mouth won't be regenerated for a few minutes, you've got time to come back and be ready for when she gets the flute out."

Stevonnie glanced around again before nodding in agreement, bounding over towards Lion and hopping on.

"When you're ready to fuse with Steven then, right?"

Gradie nodded sagely, watching them depart through a portal before looking back to Pearl. "I'm sorry I wasn't honest with you earlier. When I lost my temper, and when we formed Moonstone. I still haven't figured out exactly who am, since I've had to make do with what I am."

With everything else that had occurred, and for the moment Sugilite holding her own against the disfigured Shungite, Pearl gave up even arguing the sensibility of having that open moment.

"Nothing will ever make me lose respect for you, Gradie."

"Thank you. Because, that's the only thing that matters. I know you loved Rose, and and always will. I never wanted to even try and replace her in your life since I got back, because I also know Sodalite isn't someone you'd want to be with."

"Sodalite?"

Choosing not to explain in words, Gradie just pulled Pearl into a tight hug so that they could fuse once more.

When they emerged, Moonstone was much the same as she had always been, though her right arm was notably thin. The hand also had two fingers in opposition to her thumb, just enough to let her keep hold of the partisan when it materialized in her hand.

When she opened her eyes, Moonstone sighed quietly.

"Gradie, if we did decide to become that close, your gender wouldn't change anything for me."

Her eyes closed briefly, then opened again.

"Thank you."

There was a soft glow that encompassed her form, after which Moonstone leapt up to join the battle with a fresh sense of renewal. She was no longer Gradie and Pearl occupying the same body. With the last divide gone, she had truly coalesced into her own being.

* * *

Kiki was pacing beside the warp pad rather anxiously when Lion's portal opened up to the arrival of him and Stevonnie.

"Huh? I thought you'd be coming by this." She gestured to the inactive warp pad, rolling the whistle between her fingers nervously. "What happened?"

"Shungite destroyed the statue, and Steven's house." Stevonnie hopped down from Lion's back, giving a quick pat to his mane, before walking over with Peridot's gemstone in hand. "The main pad is probably intact, but buried under rubble. The other is down in the ocean now. Along with the washing machine."

"Oh my gosh." Kiki looked out at the battle in the distance again. There hadn't been as much to see since the bright beam of pink light, though there were glimpses of a big purple Gem on occasion. Shungite still hadn't recovered enough to be properly visible from that distance.

Her staring was cut short by Stevonnie, who firmly placed the gemstone in the middle of the palm, then curled her fingers over it.

"Keep them safe. I think I'm going to be back here again soon. Well, me or either one."

Stevonnie climbed right back onto Lion, that time taking the chance to draw out Rose's Sword from his mane. "I'm not giving up yet."

* * *

The damage to the beach had considerably worsened by the time they got back. Sugilite was still slugging it out with Shungite, far longer than any other of the fusions. Whether it was because she was able to remain effective for longer, or that Garnet and Amethyst were sticking together again didn't even really matter at that point.

It meant more opportunities for Moonstone to fly around in her own unique way of essentially swimming through the air, something that was a surprise for Stevonnie to see, and deliver more blows with her partisan. While they didn't stop the regeneration process, they were at least slowing down how much of her body was recovering overall.

Shungite's face was halfway back to how it had been, her eyes clearly fuming with rage that she couldn't express any other way just yet.

Still not ready to unfuse, Sugilite just cackled at the irony of the situation when it dawned on her.

"And they say I'd never speak again! Ha! Who's talking now?" She delivered another three-hit-combo to Shungite, sending her stumbling back yet again. "I almost like you better this way! Let's keep it going!"

The next blow threw Shungite right back into the ocean, followed up with another twirl of her flail that she swung up high, then brought crashing down towards her face. Moonstone took the chance to back off, unfusing at last with both Gradie and Pearl feeling exhausted by the length of that bout of fighting.

At the last moment, Shungite lashed both hands upwards, having retrieved her batons at last from where she had dropped them. Once the downward force had been negated, she hurled it aside and cartwheeled across to deliver a series of devastating blows to Sugilite in return.

Right before she issued the last strike, her mouth finally recovered enough for to speak through, albeit in a garbled manner.

"Don't trash talk Gems you can't beat."

She lifted both hands, then plunged the batons right through Sugilite's chest, causing her form to dissipate in a bright flash accompanied by a loud snapping sound. Garnet and Amethyst both began to fall towards the beach in a slump from their forced separation.

As a follow up, Shungite swung her baton to catch Amethyst mid-fall, swinging her right into the cliff where the statue had been carved from. When she lifted away, Amethyst's gemstone fell from the impact site, bearing some damage, but nothing Steven couldn't fix before sending her off.

Gradie raced in to rescue Amethyst before she was caught in the continuing fight. Her hand clenched around the gemstone itself in a moment of glee, right before she was kicked by Shungite with enough force to send her sprawling out into the distant ocean, skimming over the surface before sinking.

"I'm getting tired of this!"

Shungite dropped both batons, reaching up to her gemstone with her left hand. She no longer cared about Pearl rescuing Garnet from the site as best she could.

Stevonnie narrowed their eyes, gripping onto Lion's mane. The moment of truth had arrived.

"This stopped being fun a while ago! Now I am taking what I came for!"

Out came the flute, gleaming in the moonlight as she drew it up to her lips.

The best chance at curing the corrupt Gems of their condition thus far, but still far too dangerous to risk leaving in Shungite's hands.

Lion vanished through one portal right before the first note began. Just as it started to ring out, a new portal materialized right in front of Shungite's face.

"Overhead death-strike!"

Stevonnie brought the sword down right through the middle of the flute. Rather than simply slicing in two like they expected of anything metal or the like, the whole instrument shattered into thousands on thousands of thin, glittering needles.

Lion barely opened a fresh portal on the descent to escape before being impaled by the shower of needles as they sprayed across the whole beach. Fortunately for them all, including Shungite, the needles soon dissolved away into dust.

Her flute had finally been destroyed, but that was still only part of the threat dealt with. It would still take so many strikes of Rose's Sword to completely nullify her ability to regenerate, considering most of her torso had recovered by then as well.

"Fine! You want to play that way? Have at, Crystal Gems!"

She scooped up her batons yet again, sweeping them across the ruins of the Temple to clear the way in, and scatter Steven's house across both sides of the beach.

Stevonnie and Lion returned just in time for the former to be thrown off by a flying piece of stone, only barely blocked by a reflexive summoning of the shield. It still knocked the wind out of them enough to unfuse back into Steven and Connie.

With Garnet situated behind the cliff while she continued to recover, Pearl ran out again to grab both of them and pull them aside as well, motioning for Lion to retreat to the barn. She had finally realized what was going on.

"Steven! Make your shield as strong as you can manage! We can't escape this!"

Standing tall over the now exposed Temple door, Shungite clapped both batons together end-to-end, making them lock together as they had been when originally summoned. Then, she twisted them in opposite directions.

From the lower tip sprang a maw of drill heads and support prongs. All stolen from the injectors and with one hard downward thrust, put to work grinding and screeching against the door itself.

The noise was nearly unbearable, even with the cliff between the Crystal Gems and the door itself. Steven putting a tight shield up around himself and the other three only muffled it a little. Pearl kept her arms wrapped around them all, having very horrid memories of the day the corrupting light came.

The Temple door started to crack, more light pouring out from each seam that spread from the star insignia outward. Soon it even went beyond the door itself, spreading into the Temple wall, all while the drill bits drove in deeper.

"This is my victory, Crystal Gems! MINE!"

The integrity of the Temple's dimensional technology reached its critical threshold at last, giving out altogether.

There was a tremendous boom, a flash of light blasting out in a full one-hundred-eighty degree cone from the cliff. When the light dissipated, there was a monstrous cloud of dust in its wake.

That moment lingered for a few seconds, before cutting straight to black.


End file.
